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Xeya is headed off to college! She's going to live in a big house with a bunch of other students that's in walking distance of campus! She's both a bit nervous and extremely excited about this.
Mom drives her there and helps her unload everything, but she has to get back home to help Dad with the twins, so she can't stay to help Xeya unpack. There's a tearful goodbye, and then she starts taking her boxes up the stairs, humming happily.
"Oh, cool! Nice to meet you, Skip. I'm Xeya."
She attempts to try for a handshake, half dropping and then catching the box she's holding.
"Whoops, let's pretend we shook hands and actually carry boxes," he laughs, picking one up.
"YesLet'sDoThat," she says, blushing furiously.
Okok topic change! "So, what are you studying?"
"Oh! Sorry."
She reaches the top of the stairs, and... "Uh. Would you happen to know which room I'm going in? Annika texted it to me and I just checked it five minutes ago, but my memory is... not good..."
"I thiiiiink you're in the one Dave vacated, which is this one over here, and if I'm right you were at least correct about which stairs to go up, the place is weird to navigate because it was originally a triplex."
"I do remember it's the staircase on the left!" she says happily, following him towards Dave's old room.
"What was Dave like?"
"I do not think he'll be much missed. He was... good for playing Mario Kart with and under most other circumstances kind of volatile, not like dangerous but unpredictable. His ex also left, so if you make friends at school you can tell 'em there's a room right next to yours."
"Oh dear! Well, I was worried about making a good impression and I guess I still am, but it's nice to know that I have easy competition on the VOR front."
"Oh, uh, Value Over Replacement. I think it's originally a sports fan term but I picked it up from a really good chain of shitposts talking about... I think it was late 20th century politicians?" She follows him into the room and puts her box down.
"Huh, seems hard to calculate. - you want these next to each other or a stack? - like what if one possible roommate is on time with rent but never replaces the toilet paper and the other one's awful about paying up but does a lot of dishes or something."
"Next to each other, thanks! And I think you have that problem in sports too? A guy can be good at running but bad on defense or have mediocre aim... I think you're supposed to line up the stats and then look at them and see what stands out and you think matters..." She pauses. "Or maybe you could just do it by vibes, that sounds easier and it's still a coherent thing to talk about. That's what the politicians post was doing."
"Gotcha. I'll go get you another box."
There is no guy in sight unless she chases him pretty fast.
Time to grab another box!
...she sees a guy going down the stairs ahead of her. "Oh! Hi."
"ZAY-ya! And that's me, yes." She smiles brightly at him. "Do you live here? Annika did give me a list but I'm so bad with names and it's such a big place..."
"Oh! Uh, thank you, I can grab that if you don't want to bother with the stairs..."
"Oh, okay! Well, thank you, I appreciate it. I'm in... Dave's... old room..." (...wait, who is Dave? The guy who moved out, presumably, Annika must have mentioned him.)
(She passes him on the stairs and grabs the box with her dresses and poi in it.)
Okay he's going to avoid being in her room still by the time she comes up with the next box. He pokes his head out of the adjacent Viv room instead. "You have any more of those you want help with?"
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