“She moved like a storm someone had given steel to.”

Senior Melleray House Captain Senior “She moved like a storm someone had given steel to.”

[walsh-louisa]

ohcndrea‌:

okay so great, she didn’t have to worry about a rash on top of mosquitos carrying freaky tropical diseases that she’d never heard of and mosquitos alone. great. drea was quickly deciding this camping trip was a shit idea and that she was going to have to do so much damage control to make it bearable but also try not to fucking die. sick. “ is it contagious? ” she asked, an important question. “ like if someone else in the group gets it can they give it everyone else or is it just like, from the mosquitos? ” she asked, because there were just an array of names that crossed her mind that she would certainly get it from if it was. 

then louisa said something that really just made a look of are you fucking kidding form on drea’s features. it didn’t help that she paused, and it certainly didn’t help that she met drea’s angry eyes either. did she wanna, like, fight? because drea would. “ is that some kind of joke? ” she asked, her deadpan tone making it terribly clear that she didn’t find it funny. eyes narrowing as she waited for louisa to scramble to some sort of response. god, just because the house captains were a bunch of moronic horny bastards, it didn’t mean andrea pearson was! 

“Uh,” she scanned the page for a moment or two longer, attempting to figure out the answer to Drea’s question, “Um,” she hesitated when she found the answer. “It says no but it can be sexually transmitted,” not an issue for her but she wasn’t convinced that the rest of the cohort would be safe from spreading Zika like wildfire by the time they returned to campus. God help them.

If looks could kill, Sofie would be picking out which Florence and the Machine song to play at Louisa Walsh’s funeral by now. “I don’t mean you, you, obviously,” she clarified, “I mean one, I mean it fucks up one’s pregnancy, anybody’s pregnancy- that’s the main concern with this whole Zika thing,” she explained, turning her laptop to face Drea so that the junior could see she was just reading from the WebMD description, rather than passing judgment on the other girl’s extracurricular activities. Louisa didn’t need tropical diseases to inspire that, she was relatively concerned about the things the junior girls got up to in their free time on any given occasion, it really didn’t take much to conjure. “-Like it’s not going to make you blind but you’re going to feel gross for weeks, maybe even months and then the worst part is that it causes something called micro- uh, microcephaly in babies,” was she digging herself deeper? Maybe but she was trying not to antagonize Andrea further when she knew they were already on questionable terms following the blackout. “So, like- it’ll be fine,” she insisted unless Drea was at risk of being pregnant or screwing somebody on camp that had been bitten by an infected mosquito...then it was arguably less fine but not quite as bad as having to deal with the look Andrea Pearson was serving. 

[walsh-louisa]

ohcndrea‌:

once upon a time drea had thought she was rather talented at not listening to the house captain, even ignoring their existence at times. it had become increasingly difficult throughout the year due to reasons mainly tied up with her best friend but drea was still trying. louisa, somehow, made it even more difficult to ignore her by mentioning bugs loudly in the common space. brows furrowed as she looked up at listened, both irritated and disgusted by the news that she not only had to worry about regular mosquitos but crazy mutant ones too. god, how was she going to get any cute camping instagrams when she was completely coated in fifty layers of bug spray? “ what the hell is zika? or – ” she didn’t remember what the other thing louisa had said was, much less how it was said “ or the other thing you said, is it like malaria or something? ” she thought she remembered having to take something for malaria once, she was sure that was a mosquito thing in like south america. was that tropical? fuck, why were bugs so gross?

“Good....question...” Louisa uttered absently, the words sort of tumbling out of her mouth as she focused more on typing ‘what is Zika?’ into the Google search engine, instead of addressing Andrea Pearson directly. She liked to consider herself well versed in many areas but admittedly, medical science was not one of them, not really. Her parents and older brothers were nerds, big ones but not the type that could recite symptoms, incubation periods or subsequent medical complications on the spot. Her father was more about binary code, a language that remained foreign to Louisa and her mother was a lecturer in public affairs which meant that if she had to, she could probably spin the whole tropical disease ridden mosquito thing into a ‘character building experience’ if she had to. It was from her mother that she got her diplomacy and from her father that she got her occasionally awkward sense of humor and tendency to sound like she thought she was smarter than she actually was.

“Okay- so most people that get Zika don’t actually show symptoms, so I was wrong on the whole body rash thing,” she conceded, that was sort of a relief? Right? Sort of? “-but it can fuck up your pregnancy,” she didn’t mean to pause, not meet Andrea’s eyes at that exact moment but it had been subconscious. It wasn’t that she thought Drea could be pregnant...just that she’d have been a fool to pretend that it wasn’t a reasonable possibility. She cleared her throat and continued a moment later, “-and you can get a degenerative disease as a result...so, like...you can’t walk, talk- like MS, I think,” she wasn’t sure, so she shrugged her shoulders to make it known.

[walsh-louisa]

“Climate change clears path for new mosquito in Massachusetts. It can carry Zika, dengue and other tropical diseases.” Louisa read the news headline verbatim from the screen of her laptop with a somewhat uncomfortable expression on her face. “I was just trying to check the weather for the trip but...that’s good to know too, I guess,” she spoke dryly, mentally adding tropical diseases to the list of things she was reasonably concerned about when it came to trekking through the swamps of Bridgewater with her classmates the following week. “On the plus side, since it’s going to be seventy-eight percent humidity or higher, we won’t have to worry about getting cold if we capsize in our kayaks...we’ll just have to worry about insect bites and full body rashes,” 

[caroldanversenthusiast]

sophie turner just radiates big dick energy

[ohcndrea]

                                                               Broadripple as The Major Arcana                                                                           ↪ XIV. Temperance ( Louisa Walsh )

⦁ Balance, moderation, patience, purpose ⦁ Excess, self-evaluation and healing, re-alignment

@walsh-louisa

[walsh-louisa]

dylsson‌:

Dylan Thompson was — as most of the student body knew first-hand, unfortunately — an out-right terror to be around. He was made up entirely of unruly attitude, teenage BO and disrespect for just about whatever he came into contact with. If there was a cap on afternoons that the priests and nuns of the academy could spend supervising him in detention, they’d probably have met their quota months ago because at this point, when asked if he wanted to stay back after class for being a nuisance, Dylan would flatly respond “ Do you? ” which only earned both his teachers and him yet another hour watching the clock tick by in slow motion. But whatever, it was all about the game of life and showing off that he was the most fearless player. Even if his grandparents got called again. So what, he was almost eighteen anyway, the sooner they got sick of him and cast him out like they always threatened, the better. Then he’d be free to do whatever he wanted! Of course, with no consideration for how hard homelessness at eighteen with no job would actually be in reality. That kind of forward-thinking was for pussies.

As usual, and feeling particularly bothersome with the good weather outside, Dylan was parading around with a small flock of his troublesome pals, shit-talking people around them and flicking the skirts of unsuspecting girls walking past for a good laugh. After grabbing a trembling freshman by the lapels and daring him to stick an “ I LIKE WHEN GOD WATCHES ME SUCK DICK ” sign Dylan had scrawled not two minutes prior to an unsuspecting victim’s back, he and his friends watched on in glee as the person walked around with it for a few moments, not a clue in the world of what people were gawking and giggling at.

Finally, playing the faux hero ( which should have been obvious to anybody that knew Dylan, or at least, knew what he was like ) he rose his voice and pointed the person out in front of everybody. “Hey uh — might wanna… check your blazer. Unless you’re trying to send a specific kind of message.” Laughter echoed behind him from his pack members. “In which case, right on. But also… Doheny, twelve o’clock.” He pointed out in perfect timing as the unsuspecting academy headmaster rounded the corner.

Generally speaking, there was an element of justified hesitation whenever Dylan instructed Louisa to do anything. Typically, she’d learned, there was some kind of punchline on the end of “Hey, look at this,” or “What’s on your face” and it rarely paid off for her. On this occasion, however, she hadn’t really thought it through before she tugged at the shoulder of her blazer to see what was stuck to it and much to her surprise, there actually was something there, Dylan hadn’t just said it for the sake of tricking the senior into doing something on command. She pulled at the sign and hoped she got all of the tape off of the fabric of her blazer before she actually took the time to read it.

Hilarious. “If I’m not mistaken, this is in your handwriting Dylan,” she had tutored him for long enough to recognise the slightly jaunty scribble penned by the male, “I didn’t know you believed in God,” she noted, as if the other aspect of the sign was perfectly believable, nothing out of the ordinary in fact. Upon the headmaster’s arrival she tucked the sign under her blazer discreetly, “-That’s a great idea, while the weather is still nice and the sun is still out, we could easily finish up your first draft in the courtyard, I’ll just grab my things,” she announced as if it was the tail end of a conversation that had taken place between the pair, rather than on the inside of Louisa’s head. Perfect timing. The headmaster gave the pair a curt nod on his way and Louisa gave Doheny a smile in return, “Good afternoon, Father,” she greeted cheerily, delivering Dylan a little kick to the ankle and silently encouraging him to do the same.

Once their headmaster had moved on, seemingly uninspired by the interaction between Louisa and Dylan, she turned her attention back to her tutee and pulled the note out from its hiding place, “Did you want this back or do you have spares?” she asked, though she wasn’t holding it in Dylan’s reach just yet.

[walsh-louisa]

gwescott‌:

At the mention of the agriculture plot, aka, Broadripple’s worst idea for a bonding activity known to date as far as Gwen was concerned, she rolled her eyes and turned away from Louisa to begin settling in for bed. “So you found a bone, it couldn’t have been that traumatic. The girls who found the rabbit got over that pretty quickly.” She interrupted the story, actually not knowing much of what had happened to those girls because she didn’t care. But she assumed they’d gotten over it, Gwen had barely even paid notice to the whole bear inscident either. As long as nothing was actively trying to kill her in the woods, which she never went anyway, then why was it her problem?

Gwen put her laptop onto her nightstand and began pulling back her bedsheets. She scoffed at school girl silly. “Well I think Sofie needs to get checked. Jumping on people is lunatic behavior, not school girl behavior.” Gwen scolded, eyebrows raised before she twisted and sat in her spot on her bed, propping pillows against the small of her back. Watching Louisa as she spoke like some kind of camp guidance counselor, Gwen tucked her forearms under her blanket. “Okay, well, be that as it may, my business is nobody’s but my own.” She told her flatly, not willing to budge on the fact. If Louisa wanted to share, fine, Gwen didn’t. “Maybe.” She said, “But I also think we’re beyond getting along. Yes, we can not kill each other in our sleep, but this will work best if we just stay out of each other’s way. That’s my plan, I hope for your sake, it’s yours too.”

“People react to different things differently,” she reasoned, “We weren’t expecting it, it threw us off-balance,” she explained, “Yeah, we got over it but it took a few days- you’ve never watched a scary movie and gotten it into your head that something was outside your bedroom window, waiting to get you?” she remembered an old joke from freshman year and raised an eyebrow, “Never made your own heart race thinking you heard a bump in the night? A ghost? It was like that, we were on edge,” she wasn’t going to give up on the narrative, especially since part of it was true. They were on edge, they were freaked out but instead of ghosts or Ted Bundy, they were worried about going to jail.

She nodded her head as Gwen mentioned Sofie and climbed into bed, “I’ll let her know you think so,” she offered dryly with no intention of actually doing so. She knew Sofie, she certainly knew Sofie better than Gwen did and she didn’t think she needed to be checked for anything that night, other than a mild concussion perhaps. Sure, she’d been a little boisterous in her attempts to defend Louisa against Damian but then again, Damian hadn’t been particularly delicate either.

“I don’t think we’re beyond anything,” she disagreed plainly, knowing it was a pretty bold statement to make, “I don’t think anybody is,” she added and she genuinely believed it as she went about her business on her side of the room, unpacking bits and pieces, setting up her desk before she made sure she was in bed before Gwen’s prescribed curfew. It was the very reason she’d stood toe to toe with Jamie with her chin held high, the reason she’d taken responsibility for Dylan’s lapse of judgment and had decided to take care of his mistakes herself. She believed in people because people believed in her. “You don’t need to stay out of my way,” she insisted as she crouched to unzip a duffel bag and tossed her PJs onto the bed, “You just need to not act like you hate every cell in my body when we do cross paths,” she suggested, though she thought it was a pretty tall order, “- actually you don’t even have to do that but I wouldn’t have a problem with it if you tried,” she conceded, realizing that the other girl actually had no obligation to be civil other than human decency.

[walsh-louisa]

gwescott‌:

There was the smallest of crinkles in Gwen’s nose when Louisa quoted that they were on the same page, hearing it but not exactly believing it. While they both evidently shared some traits, Gwen refused to think that they were too similar. She had already come to ease her tyranny with Damian over accepting their strange similarities, she wasn’t about to extend the same decency to Louisa, mostly for fear that the girl would slight her if she ever grew soft for her. As docile as Louisa could appear, Gwen didn’t trust that she wasn’t conniving in her own ways. All girls had their motives, and Gwen wasn’t stupid enough to think they didn’t.

Gwen’s head tilted upwards, shoulders squaring at no drugs and alcohol. That worked for her, mostly given that any alcohol or drugs she did sneak back onto campus she conveniently always convinced Flick to smuggle. Of course, Gwen couldn’t harbor it. She was a school captain. If she got caught, her entire reputation was on the line. If Flick got caught, well… for one, she was foreign, Gwen was confident she could just make up something.

Gwen looked at the two hands raised at her as if searching for some secret knife hidden between Louisa’s fingers or something. But when she came up with nothing, her eyes simply darted back to Louisa’s, slimming when she had the audacity to bite back. “Okay first of all, if we were, which we weren’t, it’s none of your business anyway.” She didn’t know why that had been her first line of attack, but it had just come out and now it was too late to take it back now. “I told you, I lost my bracelet.” She snapped, glad she’d even remembered that lie in the heat of the moment, given that the bracelet had nothing to do with the event. It wasn’t even a meaningful token, it was just some nothing birthday present, she didn’t even remember when she’d gotten it. “I swim sometimes,” She defended, “But I needed somebody with a key to get it.” Which hadn’t been Damian but Louisa didn’t have to know that. “I wasn’t about to let it get stolen during school hours should somebody else find it. Besides, what about you and Sofie? What exactly were you two doing traipsing around in the middle of the night? Or should we both just agree now that it’s neither of our business what we do with people in our own time?”

“Right,” she agreed, though she still wasn’t buying the whole lost bracelet story, it was as false as the midnight stroll in combat gear with a pocket knife story that she and Sofie had conjured that evening. “Just trying to establish my options, in case I ever need them,” she wouldn’t but she’d already started poking the bear, there was no use in apologizing and going back on her words now.

She folded her arms across her chest, “Sofie and I were roommates, it’s hard to sleep when your roommate is restless and we were both having a rough week after the whole agricultural club thing,” she explained, “We went for a walk to try and exhaust ourselves and got a little over-excited thinking about the bone in the ground and the Ted Bundy movie had just come out. We were being silly, school girl silly, there was nothing scandalous about any of it until we bumped into you and Damian,” she spoke cooly, shrugging her shoulders casually as she leaned against a blank wall on her designated side of the dormitory.

Louisa pushed against the wall and stood back up straight though her arms remained folded across her chest, “I don’t have anything to hide,” she said plainly, “My business is your business if it comes anywhere near you, I expect the same courtesy,” she offered, “I’m not going to leave you a Post-It every time I have an interaction with another person but if there’s anything you need to know, I’ll tell you. I’m not going to keep secrets,” not big ones, anyway, “-I want to live in peace, I want to get along. Sticking to the rules, respecting each other’s shit and some kind of transparency will go a long way, don’t you think?” 

[walsh-louisa]

gwescott‌:

Surprised, Gwen blinked as Louisa began to get off the couch. She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting from the other senior, not a full-blown argument, that was for sure, but still something. Gwen hadn’t expected her to react so promptly, she’d expected to be in this for the long haul. But perhaps, despite their distaste for each other, living with Louisa would be easier on all accounts. Wouldn’t that be the dream? Gwen’s eyes did narrow though as Louisa spoke again, breezing past her in a leggy attempt to gain higher ground perhaps, but Gwen was smarter. Or she liked to think she was anyway, so she didn’t let it bother her. Instead, she shot a look at the other student that said Go to bed. before tossing hair over her shoulder and following Louisa down the hall.

“Well, I’ve been neither so you can’t blame my lack of understanding.” Gwen piped back, following with folded arms and caring little for the details of Louisa’s childhood. She didn’t expect to stay up late and braid each other’s hair while swapping girlish stories with the house captain so Gwen saw no point in familiarising herself with Louisa’s foster history. Not unless it would give her a direct hand-grenade of blackmail to hold over her, anyway. If that chance arose then she would, of course, revisit the idea for a greater cause.

“Course,” Gwen responded quickly, though she wouldn’t have exactly called them ideas as much as they were simple acts of respect for sharing quarters with another human being. “Firstly, since we’re both captains, I should think it easy to coordinate a set ground rules, given our duty to represent an acute reflection of the student body so obviously that includes abiding by the rules. Curfew, door gaps, obviously no boys after hours, or ever, in fact, I would settle better with ever. I don’t know who or what you do in your spare time, but I would appreciate it if you kept it out of the dorms, all genders included. This is a private, yes, but shared space and I won’t humor the chance of interrupting sweaty foreplay all because I forgot a textbook in my own room.” She sighed, listing her conditions, “And finally, since we’re both extremely busy, I should think our dorms are a good place for quiet reconciling. That means all social activities should be organized elsewhere, minimizing distractions, of course. I sleep early, I rise early, my sleep is extremely important to me, so I won’t allow anything that intrudes on my eight hours.” Gwen explained, looking Louisa over with a finality in her tone that suggested that maybe she was finally done. Then she inhaled, “So just so that we’re clear; no rule-breaking, no fooling around, no tardiness, no messing with my sleep schedule, no loitering, and if I even have to say it; no secret knives either. And I think that about covers it.”

“Must be nice,” she commented dryly. It wasn’t as if Louisa had to be told to be sure that Gwen had never experienced adversity in her home life. Reluctantly, Louisa had been to the Prescott mansion on at least one occasion and she doubted she’d forget the glimpse at absurd luxury she’d been privy to that day. By no means was the Walsh family underprivileged, both of her parents were well-respected members of their local community and both had reasonably paying jobs that they could be proud of but the wealth of the Prescotts remained completely foreign to people like Louisa. What would be considered normal people, in Louisa’s opinion.

“Course,” Louisa repeated unintentionally, without even realizing that she was mimicking the other girl before Gwen had entered into what appeared to be a trance, reciting the numerous rules that had evidently been simmering under her tongue since the announcement of the big move. Louisa merely nodded her head, digesting the information Gwen had provided in such an overbearing manner. Admittedly, there was nothing particularly outrageous about Gwen’s requests, that was something that the Melleray house captain could give her credit for at the very least, “I actually think that’s all pretty sound,” she sounded a little surprised that it did, perhaps because she was. “I think we’re mostly on the same page about stuff,” she agreed, folding her arms across her chest, “No drugs, no alcohol in the room, that’s my only major thing but I think no rule-breaking covers it,” at least she believed that it should, “-and uh, yeah, no secret knives, no non-secret ones either,” she held her hands up in a submissive position, palms open to demonstrate that they were empty, “Promise,” she assured her new roommate, though she really didn’t think she had to, she could tell that Gwen was just being...Gwen. She was trying very hard not to be petty about the knife comment but once again, she was finding it extremely difficult in the privacy of their shared accommodation to let it slide, “-and if I want to engage in any sweaty foreplay, I’ll take it elsewhere-” not that that was going to happen any time soon, “So, does the poolhouse stay open overnight or do you have to be hooking up with a member of the swim team for access?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

[walsh-louisa]

gwescott‌:

Gwen was, quite frankly, beyond livid that the school had chosen her of all people to yank around the ranks this year when it came to insufferable dorm partners. First, her punishment had come in the form of Faith Mckay, a girl who might as well have counted her blesses she still possessed eyebrows at this point, and now, for the love of God, Gwen was expected to share sleeping quarters with Louisa Walsh. Was the faculty trying to get her admitted? Because she sure felt like a mental hospital would be more fitting and calming for her at this point than sleeping directly next to her enemies. The only benefit Gwen could seek out of this new and catastrophic situation was that Louisa was no idiot nor stranger to how Gwen felt about her, and so at least, she liked to hope, Louisa wouldn’t waste time trying to play nice. Gwen didn’t want to be her friend or her confidant, she didn’t even want to be her roommate. The quicker that was established and understood between both of them, the better.

It was getting late, and the longer Gwen sat on her new bunk with tomrrow’s to-do list staring back at her from her screen, the longer she seemed to grow annoyed that she’d seen not sign of Louisa all day. Normally, the thought would please her, like a surprise holiday to Fiji or something might, but on moving day, it was just irritating. What, was Gwen supposed to do all the work? Claim a side, unpack her things and twiddle her thumbs until Louisa made a mess of her own space, only for Gwen to tell her to change it. Fine, but she wasn’t going to be doing that at midnight, she had a strict sleep schedule and blue queen bee in her bonnet about school curfew. So, after it was clear that Louisa was avoiding a re-introduction as dormmates, Gwen took it upon herself to make finding Louisa a part of her agenda. Students needed to be in bed by the next twenty minutes, anyway, how was staying out ‘til the last second a good reflection from a house captain? Well, it wasn’t, Gwen would be the first to tell her that.

“Louisa.” She interjected straight into the middle of the senior’s conversation with somebody else, who looked about as shaken as a dog caught in the trash. Gwen didn’t even look at the other student, be them a freshman, senior, or anything in between, it didn’t matter. “I understand couch surfing might be an unshakable habit for someone with your circumstantial records, but your suitcases won’t unpack themselves. One of them almost tripped me in the doorway, so you need to move it. Before the sisters do a dorm count and I break my neck, which I’m sure was partly the plan, but I assure you it’s not funny.”

If the years of mounding cognitive behavioral therapy techniques had been useful for preparing Louisa Walsh for anything, it was useful for preparing her to share living quarters with Gwen Prescott. No, she wasn’t immune to Gwen’s razor-sharp attitude nor her venom laced words but she liked to think that with experience under her belt, she was a little more equipped than most to deal with antagonizing and stressful situations. She’d certainly been more confident in that belief before she heard her own name spat in her general direction by her new roommate, however. “Hey Gwen,” she offered a little facetiously, knowing that the other girl had absolutely no interest in formalities.

She pressed her lips together, biting her tongue as Gwen took a vicious jab at Louisa’s tarnished past. It was an unfair, arguably cruel attempt to unravel the Melleray house captain and though she was tempted to bite back, Louisa tried her best to ignore it. “On it,” she agreed, shutting her laptop and pushing the blanket that had been covering her legs to the side on the couch. Even though she had made it in just about the most tactless manner possible, Gwen had indeed made a good point. There was unpacking to be done and Louisa was the only person that could do it. She took a deep and steady breath inward, wishing she could have a moment to herself to gather her thoughts before entering the lion’s den but knowing that at this point, that was far too much to ask. “You’re all finished unpacking? No rest for the wicked, I guess,” she didn’t mean it quite so literally but she supposed it was a fitting saying on this particular occasion. She moved past the other senior with her laptop tucked neatly under her arm, leading the way to their dorm in a small attempt to establish at least some form of dominance between them, since she’d been ordered about by the Seton house captain like a poorly trained dog. “I was adopted, not homeless by the way,” she announced without bothering to look over her shoulder at the other girl, finding it nearly impossible now to let the couch-surfing comment slide. Perhaps with Sofie in her corner, she’d have had the fortitude to let it go but there was something about the insult that had buried itself deep beneath Louisa’s skin and she couldn’t quite get rid of it, not without saying something first. Maybe it was because, despite Louisa’s protests, Gwen was sort of right. She hadn’t been homeless as such but she was no stranger to being displaced, whether it was moving between the houses of friends and lovers with her biological mother, shifting from group home to placement and then back again as an adolescent or leaving her adoptive parents in Texas to attend boarding school in Massachusettes, Louisa was no stranger to foreign places.

She sighed to herself as she entered the room, there was something about the space that felt like a jail cell, rather than the sanctuary her old dormitory had become. “So guidelines? Rules of engagement? I’m sure you have a couple of ideas,” she noted, ready for an onslaught of likely ridiculous and unreasonable sanctions that would make even North Korea raise an eyebrow. She doubted any of them would be aimed at producing a relatively harmonious environment, rather they would serve the purpose of shaping Louisa’s conduct, making sure she stayed in line and didn’t do whatever it was that Gwen was under the impression that she did that just so happened to be so deplorable. “I have some myself,” she added a little more quietly, certain that it wouldn’t really matter all that much to Gwen whether Louisa had any terms and condition of her own to offer.

[walsh-louisa]

libburkes‌:

dorm living had been something libby had almost been looking forward to at broadripple. she pictured it to be like people talked about college dorms, lots of fun, lots of late nights, able to decorate it with whatever, but within moments she’d been proven wrong. not only rules against most of her expectations, her roommate wasn’t exactly– well, she wasn’t what libby had been expecting. she’d pictured a girl either just like her or just like her old best friends in montauk. then on top of all that, there was an almost claustrophobic feeling about the dorm room at night. it was nothing like her spacious room back home, and every inch of the dorm was a reminder of that. no trophies, no mirror with lipstick writing on it, no collection of polaroid photos from various important events with her friends. just about everything about her dorm left her avoiding it each night up until the very last minute.

“ hey, ” she greeted in equally friendly tone. her new house captain, whatever the hell that meant. louisa seemed cool– okay maybe not cool but like, fine. but she still needed some more time figuring out the school before she went admitting that to anyone. but it couldn’t hurt her to be friendly. she continued her way into the room as louisa spoke, fiddling with academy card in her hand. her credit points had finally processed, hence her reason for being in the common room specifically. vending machine heaven. “ yeah, i think i just missed it, ” she said, referring to ‘the move’ that had apparently happened. she’d overheard a little about it, a big shuffle of roommates. she wished there would be another one, but she got the impression it wasn’t a common occurrence. “ i think i’m just as like, lost regardless though ” she chuckled, brushing a blonde lock out of her features gracefully as she did. “ do you like your roommate? ” she asked, though honestly she wasn’t even sure if house captains had roommates, and after that thought she tacked on “ or do house captain not get roommates? like ra’s or whatever? ”

“Oh hey,” she perked up, realizing who she was speaking to, “Elizabeth,” she reminded herself, saying the name aloud, “How’s everything going? Settling in okay?” she asked, raising an eyebrow, “You came at a good time, it’s a lot easier to move in when everybody else is settled- like it was crazy trying to get everything organized last week with boxes in the hallway, people trying to squeeze all this stuff into spaces at the same time as everybody else, it was total chaos and pretty much nobody unpacked right away,” she explained, though to her understanding it was all fixed by now, at least for most of the students in her house that she had poked her head in to visit recently. 

“Yeah, not quite- the perks of being a house captain begin and end with the knowledge that you have the opportunity to positively impact your peers...and put it on your college application,” she chuckled as she spoke, she didn’t mean to sound so cynical about the whole thing but she wasn’t going to pretend it came with a fancy crown to wear and a private suite either. “My roommate is another house captain- it doesn’t work like that, like not every house captain rooms with another house captain,” even though she’d been living with a different house captain before that as well, “It just worked out that way,” for better or for worse. Mostly for worse. She then remembered the other part of the question that had been asked; do you like your roommate? Yikes. She tried to take a politicians approach to the question, “It’s awesome to have the opportunity to bond with Gwen. We work together a lot but we don’t often have the chance to hang out or really get to know each other on a personal level,” she offered, keeping things fairly neutral so that she didn’t have to outwardly lie to the new girl. “Who are you rooming with?” she probably should have known that, admittedly but with all the shifting around and everything else that was going on, she had a lot on her plate.

[walsh-louisa]

ivylassiterx‌:

“Give her her own island and she will start to believe herself a queen. Considering I think she probably already does… best to leave it there.” Ivy shot back, a little more amused now as she leaned back onto the couch and closed her eyes for a moment.

She only really offered a hum, soft and slightly nervous as the question was posed. It wouldn’t hurt to write up an anonymous letter, but considering that her anxiety issues were so well known by the faculty, and that she had already had plenty of conversations about that sort of thing with the staff (but, of course, without the proper medical notes, there wasn’t much to be done), she wasn’t sure it would remain anonymous. Then again, helping other people with her particular issues probably wouldn’t be a bad thing. “I’ll draft something up and get it to you by Friday.” She finally said, with a sigh. “Though, I’m not sure how much good my word, anonymous or not, will do for you.” It never hurt to try.

“I was trying to be nice, but it was still a genuine offer.” She replied honestly, a slight smirk on her face, eyes rolling a bit under closed eyelids. “I know I’m an asshole, but I’m not that much of an emo nightmare.” Though she was living the dream with a room to herself again. That had been the one thing she’d missed from home. “It can get quiet, so I wouldn’t mind the occasional visitor. Within my own personal specifications, of course. I’m not planning on running a hostile for every girl who dislikes her roommate.” After a pause, she added, with an amused, almost self-deprecating tone. “Not as if I have any actual friends to invite over, anyway.”

Louisa’s lips parted to speak but Ivy got there before she did. Gwen Prescott didn’t need an island of her own to believe she was queen. She didn’t need a house to be a captain of or a squad to boss around as if she’d taken pointers from the Gestapo. Gwen Prescott just needed to be Gwen Prescott, that was the start and end of her reasoning for the way she acted and to some extent, Louisa supposed she could admire that about Gwen, how self-assured she was.

“Don’t feel like you have to,” she interjected when she saw a window of opportunity, a hand outstretched in a reassuring manner as she did so, “Think about it, take the time you need,” she insisted with sincerity, “If you change your mind, you don’t even have to let me know,” she added, leaving as many doors open as possible in her attempts to accommodate her classmate, though she was silently hoping Ivy would still come through for Louisa. 

She smiled at the honesty from Ivy and suspected that the offer had been, at least to some small degree, an attempt to meet the standards of pro-social conventions. “I don’t think that,” she corrected with a brief shake of her head and it was true, she didn’t think Ivy was all that much of a nuisance to anybody and if she was, Louisa would have been interested to hear why.  “If you charged a boarding fee, you might make a nice profit,” she was joking because that was totally and utterly against school rules, “I doubt I’m the only one who misses their old roomie,” she added with a casual shrug. She offered a small, sympathetic smile at the comment that followed. If it had come from anybody else she might have thought it was bait, somebody fishing for validation from Louisa but from Ivy, it seemed sincere, “If you want some second-hand- well, pre-loved but very, very high quality buddies, I’ve got a handful,” actually less than a handful of people that she’d consider genuine friends but she considered the quality of the people she could trust far, far more important than the quantity. 

[walsh-louisa]

ivylassiterx‌:

Although Ivy wanted to call bullshit on Louisa’s answer, she didn’t, instead simply tilting her head and fixing the other girl with a rather incredulous stare. Then again, for all she knew, Louisa was getting on with Gwen like a house on fire and things were fine, Ivy was simply making assumptions based on the fact that Gwen was… well… a nightmare was a nice way to put it, and Ivy had some pretty nasty nightmares. “Of course. And how much personal space, exactly, does your new roommate require? Because an entire bedroom seems a bit excessive.” At the very least, Ivy respected Louisa’s ability to remain more diplomatic than she ever would in the same situation. She didn’t press the issue, however, because she was at least trying not to be rude. To even be friendly. Perhaps this school was starting to rub off on her in the worst ways.

Ivy took a moment to look sympathetic, and also apologetic that she had ended up in the spare. It had been a rather happy turn of events for Ivy herself, who had never done well with a roommate in the first place, all nerves and trouble with others. Maybe it had been strategic. Maybe someone had mentioned to someone that she truly was a nightmare to room with. Then again, she wasn’t Gwen. That was something. “It’s helped my anxiety greatly, not having to share.” A pause, as she listened, a bit disappointed that her theory wasn’t confirmed. Then again, still wasn’t denied. Still possible that the snake thing would be brought to light eventually. “I suppose. Well, considering your camped out on the common room sofa instead of in your own bed.” A pause, and Ivy let out a sigh, soft and nervous, before speaking up again, softly. An offer. She wouldn’t have normally made it, but Louisa wasn’t the worst and Ivy could sympathize. “I have a spare bed in my room, if you ever need a place to crash. To ensure that your roommate has adequate… personal space.” 

“I think she’d probably benefit from living on her own island but realistically speaking, I think a little extra time might be a good start,” she didn’t specify a duration but ‘a little extra time’ really meant a whole night.

“That’s cool,” she offered with a smile, “There should be more options in place for students that benefit from alternative arrangements,” she had actually campaigned for that sort of thing as house leader on more than one occasion but as the faculty had told her time and time again, there was only so much they could do, “Would you be willing to write up an anonymous statement about that? Something I can take to Doheny?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “I’m kind of trying to spread the word about student wellbeing,” she didn’t mention that it was part of the reason the reshuffle had taken place at all, “-It’s a work in progress” she added. There was a lot of work yet to be done, in fact.

“Is that a legit offer or are you just trying to be nice? Cos I totally get it if it was an off-hand thing- you must be living to freakin’ dream with a whole room to yourself,” she mused, though she wasn’t sure she’d have liked a room to herself, only one without Gwen in it, “-but if it’s legit, I’ll take you up on that- just for a night or something, I’m not going to be one of those asshole couch surfers that says they’re gonna stay the night and then starts moving their stuff into drawers and hanging their clothes in the closet. When I say just a night or two, I mean it, I can read a crowd, I’ll know when my welcome wagon expires,” she explained sincerely, she didn’t want to encroach on Ivy’s peaceful existence too much, even though a little staycation from Gwen did appeal.

[walsh-louisa]

ivylassiterx‌:

“You’re hiding from your new roommate, aren’t you?” Ivy offered, pushing herself away from the wall and moving toward the couch to join Louisa, pulling her legs up and dropping her bag on the floor next to it. No reason to engage in the polite small talk, in Ivy’s opinion. Then again, Ivy was often quite cut and dry. At her old school, the school psychologist had told her it was likely because she tended to think analytically, that it could come off as rather rude, impolite. The thought passed Ivy’s mind for a brief moment and she winced before adding. “Hey, Louisa.” A pause, a beat before she said again, “You’re hiding from your new roommate, aren’t you?”

She didn’t quite manage the playful smirk she was attempting. It likely came off as more of a grimace, but she decided to answer the question anyway, with a casual shrug of her shoulders. “I’m currently without a roommate, so I happen to think that the change was quite beneficial. Not quite sure if I would have survived the switch if I had ended up with Gwen Prescott.” A pointed look to the girl before she rested back against the couch and turned her attention to the ceiling. “Is it as awful as I’m imagining? Please validate my theory that Gwen actually does shed her skin at night and turn into an actual snake.”

The addition of a friendly greeting was appreciated but it didn’t necessarily make the content of her approach all that more pleasant, “Hey,” she greeted in return, allowing herself the extra moment or two to figure out what the hell she was going to say next. “Of course not,” she offered with a dismissive wave of her hand in the air, as if the idea was completely outrageous, “I’m just...strategically positioning myself to allow my new roommate some personal space,” she said in a very diplomatic manner. It was essentially the same thing but it sounded much, much kinder than yes, I’m avoiding Gwen because she’s a nightmare.

“Shit, so you’re the lucky one,” she mused with a chuckle, “I heard we were an odd number, I didn’t know who was going to end up in the spare- it wasn’t my old roomie,” she missed Sofie dearly and she was pretty sure that if she’d ended up with the spare bed, Louisa would have already moved in again. She shrugged her shoulders, unwilling to engage in shit talking her fellow house captain, “Teething issues, everybody needs time to get used to everybody else, nobody makes the perfect couple,” she insisted, “-and I’m still here aren’t I? With all my teeth,” she added, “So I’d say it’s actually going pretty well,”

[walsh-louisa]

maverickalex‌:

Alex tended to tap dance the line between being overly invested, and entirely disinterested in the goings on of her peers. At the moment, she was so bored with the student body that she was considering communing with the spirits for her own entertainment. Looking up from her phone, she sighed. “What’s your take on Ouija boards? I’m sure there’s a complicated accurate history or some shit, but how dangerous can something made by Hasbro or whoever really be?” She asked. She had already added it to her Amazon cart before realizing that getting one delivered right to campus was likely a one-way ticket to the Headmaster’s office. And even if she were more willing to get expelled, that was an incredibly stupid way to go out. Still, she clicked her tongue, leaning back in her chair. “Ghosts have gotta have better stories than who’s fucking who.” She half-muttered. “Or at the very least, have a great list of who’s fucking who.” She added, brow raised in consideration.

Louisa leaned back in her chair in a leisurely manner, digesting the question she’d been asked. It was a good one, she liked it but she wasn’t prepared to answer off the cuff, she needed a moment or so to really consider her answer. So with a slightly furrowed brow and a pensive expression decorating her fingers, she did just that, completely abandoning the book she was reading for her English class. “My take- and this might be a hot take but hear me out-,” she prefaced before continuing with her grand statement, “Don’t fuck with them,” she concluded promptly. “-I’m not saying don’t use them, I’m saying don’t fuck with them. Like, know your shit before you get elbows deep in the spirit world- like, I don’t know if I’m totally on board with all of that stuff- spirit boxes still sound a lot like radio static to me- but I do respect the idea and I respect the idea of respecting the idea- feel me?” she advised, certain that she needed Sofie’s relative expertise in the field (thanks largely to Buzzfeed Unsolved) to reiterate her angle but confident that she was making a valid point even without her. She chuckled a little at the idea of ghosts having an extensive list of who was fondling who on campus, “If spirits have nothing better to do than keep tabs on who's banging who around here then please, please make sure I go into the light. I already know too much about the sex lives of people I have to sit in class with so, the spirit world can keep all of that to itself. I wouldn’t mind knowing who keeps eating all of the bread in the kitchenette though, the last three times I’ve wanted to make myself a grilled cheese I’ve had to do it with the crusts,” 

[walsh-louisa]

sofiebauers‌:

“ and risk another concussion? ” sofie retorted, making a face for a moment, “ no thanks, i’m good actually. ” she chuckled, though she thought and she was sure gwen would agree that she’d brought that first one upon herself. she still regretted those words, the ones she could remember anyway. she hadn’t meant them, she didn’t care if gwen and damian were boning in the swimming pool. she’d just been scared. “ i did speak to damian briefly though, during the blackout. ” she nodded as she informed her friend. it hadn’t been anything of importance, just about mats. “ he didn’t seem to be like, holding onto anything that happened, so, ” she trailed off, she didn’t really have anything to add there. sure, the house captains had never been close, but sofie felt bad for the extra distance and awkwardness. “ so that’s good. ” she said after a second, finally finishing her trail of thought. but as she finished it, another came to mind. “ do you ever like, regret not telling them? not everything obviously, just that, we were trying to get rid of something or something like that. ”

Louisa pressed her lips together sheepishly, she was definitely not laughing at something related to Sofie nearly getting knocked out but she couldn’t help but crack a smile, regardless of her attempts to disguise it. “Mmmm, yeah, better safe than sorry,” she agreed, averting her gaze and looking down momentarily before she burst into laughter that matched Sofie’s. “Yeah?” she had spoken to Damian too, about nothing important at all, in fact, she couldn’t even remember the topic of discussion. She was pretty sure she’d pointed him in the direction of a particular student, asked if he knew how to get the batteries out of the flashlight and had wished him a good night and nothing more. “Yeah,” she said again, this time without the question inflection that had colored her previous utterance, “He doesn’t seem the type,” she confessed, “-but I don’t know...I don’t really get the whole Damian-Gwen thing- Gwamian thing,” she liked the sound of that, actually. “He’s nice enough but I don’t doubt that she could totally corrupt him, like- poison his mind completely, he’s...too nice, sometimes,” kind of like Sofie but more of a weenie, “I just feel like she knows what to say, which buttons to push and she could totally reel him in like one of her lackeys...but with more power over the student body, obviously,” she shrugged it off though it was something she’d given a decent amount of thought to recently. “Fuck no,” she practically spat out, shaking her head, “No way,” she reiterated, “No shit, if we’d told Gwen what was really going on, she would have gone to Doheny that night- bets on it,” she was confident, evidently, “She wouldn’t believe us for a start- she never does-” even when they had amazing ideas, in Louisa’s opinion, “-and even if she did believe us, she’d spin some like- oh, I’m worried about their safety and the safety of others- or some big fat lie like that, just to let Doheney know that we were walking around with- you know what- and then he wouldn’t believe us and we’d be busted anyway. She’d sell us to a Turkish flea market for half a cup of cold coffee if she had the chance, Sof, you don’t think she’d leap at the chance to get us in trouble if we gave her something to go by?” she folded her arms across her chest and nodded her head in a self-assured manner, “It didn’t go as planned, yeah but it went as well as it could have gone, given the circumstances,” she decided and she obviously wasn’t budging. 

[walsh-louisa]

Louisa Walsh was torn. On the one hand, she thought it was a sensible time to start considering just how necessary it was for her to live in a dorm room, rather than out of a backpack in various other parts of the school. She’d been camping with her family on more than one occasions and was starting to think that she could quite reasonably live out the rest of her time at Broadripple Academy without sleeping next to the Seton house captain. On the other hand, she refused to be intimidated by Gwen Prescott...well, she refused to be admittedly intimidated by Gwen Prescott, she supposed that was a separate concept.

Still, the senior found herself parked on the couch, snuggled under a blanket with her laptop in the common room. It was getting close to lights out when most of the other students had already gone to bed and she was weighing up her options when she heard another student wandering around. In response, she poked her head up, peering over the back of the couch and offering the other student a smile, “Hey,” she greeted politely, shifting her blanket as if it had been her intention to go to her dorm and not stay there watching YouTube all night. “What do you think of the move? Kind of weird- like, I can’t remember where anybody is anymore...it’s going to take some time to get used to again,” she expressed, having considered herself fairly well versed in the dormitory building layout before then.