Schoooooool

[madreen_rua]

the realistic college au meme.

comment with your character's name and canon in the subject header. use rng or pick one of the options below for your au scenario.



I. living conditions

01. my roommate’s boyfriend is staying over so can I please sleep on your floor
02. all our friends are drunk
03. we live in halls opposite one another and i keep seeing you change in the window please close your blinds
04. you’re the RA and you’re trying to bust me for having hermit crabs
05. you’re baking cookies in the communal kitchen at 3am and I’m angry but also really hungry
06. clearly we’re both really uncomfortable at this party
07. you peed on my car. you were drunk. I was in the car. there will be hell to pay.
08. my friend dragged me to this party and I just saw my ex quick make out with me
09. sorry my roommate puked on your shoes
10. my roommate borrowed your contraband hotpot and managed to set it on fire

II. chance meeting

01. it’s pouring and my final paper is in my backpack so I guess we’re stuck under this tiny awning together. do you think they’d deliver pizza here
02. waiting outside for pizza to be delivered but both of ours is super late
03. I know I keep coming to this [cookie/coffee/etc.] shop and for some reason it’s always your shift but don’t you dare judge me I need this for my sanity
04. I found your USB drive still in the computer (and potentially regret finding out what's on it)
05. you decked me in the head while you were playing frisbee golf
06. your school mailbox is right next to mine
07. what do you mean we’re under a tornado warning?

III. campus community

01. I’m really passionate about this cause and I will give you this flier if I have to shove it down your throat
02. it’s 3 am and I’m still in the library studying for finals and I’m losing my grip on reality and I think I just saw a ghost
03. we’re the only two people in this club. what is this club even for
04. humans vs zombies, all bets are off, friendships mean nothing
05. I thought I was the only one who liked the waffle station in the cafeteria
06. we’re studying in the library and there are two people very obviously fucking in the stacks and we keep sharing embarrassed glances
07. what are you doing at this table at the career fair
08. I saw you sneaking captain crunch and cutlery out of the dining hall
09. my computer crashed and you’re the student worker at the IT center
10. we’re both on athletic teams that aren’t as cool as the football team and they give us shit
11. you’re part of the guerrilla theatre club on campus and crashed my class for a performance

IV. credit hour woes

01. hey I have to [photograph/draw blood/film/insert major here] someone for class, will you be my guinea pig
02. we’re the only people who ever talk in discussions it’s awful
03. group project
04. both of us turned up to the wrong room for this lecture and neither of us know where it's supposed to be
05. we’re both donating blood in the blood donation van in the quad to get out of the same class
06. wait, I actually have a competent lab partner?
07. waiting for office hours
08. we started racing up the three flights of stairs to class for some reason and we can’t stop
09. vicious battle over the only left handed desk in the room

V. limited resources

01. you keep using my preferred shower stall in the floor bathrooms when I’m trying to get ready for class
02. you keep parking in the space outside my student house you absolute asshole
03. you're the only person in the room when i break the printer and i'm panicking (so don't be a dick about it please)
04. neither of us bought the expensive textbook but there is only one copy in the library and it can’t leave the building
05. this awesome professor only has one TA slot and we’re rivals
06. you keep reserving the good study room in the corner of the library with the windows
07. I’ve been sitting in this seat all semester why did you decide to sit in it today
08. you’re REALLY GOOD at using the right search terms for the academic databases and I’m on a deadline
09. we’re always at the fitness center at the same time and end up competing on the treadmill
10. can I borrow a dryer sheet? I ran out and the ones in the vending machine give me a rash

scenarios taken from this tumblr post

Comments

[starkingenuity]

Although anything is better than reading a century old's version of a rom-com, Tony does think it's probably a whole lot better not to take up class by having Loki teach him the proper way to throw his voice. Their group already looked about ready to lynch them, all three currently had their phones in their laps and were texting furiously, eyebrows wiggling for emphasis. Tony didn't care, this class meant nothing, but he had promised his mother to try a little harder and if he couldn't be engaged, he could at least be mindful of the fact that others were trying to be.

"Maybe you can get credit for tutoring that way and neither of us have to be frowned to death for your artistic license."

Showing off was not the way to win hearts and minds. Tony had gone through that phase himself before. He wanted to warn Loki that this would be a long, arduous battle through the rest of school and that not even his accent or those eyes could get him clear of that.

[coldsong]

It's less that Loki wants to show off here (I mean, he does, but he also rather enjoys this class on its own merits) than that he's distractable. There is a sense of barely-suppressed energy to him, trembling just below the surface and seeking useful avenues for escape. He's a human geyser.

It would be cute, except it's not all positive energy. Maybe less than half, even.

His expression as he regards Tony stark is guileless and sweet, but his eyes are very sharp. There is something analytical there, beneath the glimmer and flash and attention-whoring. As if he's trying to decide what Tony might be good for, and how much energy to expend on him.

His point is valid, though, and Loki glances at their texting group members with a smirk. "Well, perhaps we ought to discuss it after class, then. Does that mean you'll read your own parts now?"

That ought to be interesting, if so. Hermia and Helena do engage in a catfight before too many more pages. Tony will be arguing with himself.

[starkingenuity]

This kid gets what he wants, in the end, Tony thinks to himself as he agrees to stop fussing so much and do the work. Tony has no qualms about giving in, even though he’s recklessly stubborn at times and committed to being as impossible as is humanly possible. There’s a spark about the foreigner that draws Tony in, dangerously, and Tony is no stranger to liking that sort of thing.

He puts on a silly falsetto, trying to differentiate the voices as he reads them, making grand gestures, until he accidentally smacks one of his fellow students just trying to walk by.

Tony isn’t a class clown, but he does naturally crave all sorts of attention, good and bad. Having gotten so little of it at home does, on occasion, require that he act out.

That said, class can’t end soon enough. This is not what he enjoys, though to be honest, he hasn’t found anything he particularly enjoys about learning his entire life. That’s a rebellion in a way, but also a clue to his advancement. He’s bored easily because nothing challenges him and so he doesn’t try.

But now there’s something — someone —interesting in class.

After being held behind to get a talking to, Tony rushes out of the classroom. It’s not like he’ll never see Loki again (they do have this class together after all), but he wants to find him now. He’s king of instant gratification.

[coldsong]

Frankly, Loki thinks they should let him teach this class. Look how he's managed to get the least interested student engaged in the learning process! Granted, it's at the expense of every other student's concentration, but omelets, eggs, right? He seems to genuinely enjoy the exaggerated performance. Hell, it might not be far off from how the original was done, back in the day.

He seems to take Puck about as seriously as the role can be taken, though, reacting to Oberon's scolding with wide, wounded eyes and stammering protests that dissolve into giggles that betray how much he's enjoying watching the mortals stumble around the forest yelling at one another. He gestures, too, though his body language is more fluid and natural than Tony's simply because he does enjoy this. Between the two of them, they're probably causing a constant low-level disruption, which is only punctuated by Tony smacking someone.

The giggle Loki makes when that happens sounds like Puck's in-character cackling. Maybe he's a bit of a method actor.

When he leaves the classroom, he has to take a moment to consider how to proceed. He's convinced he's caught the other boy's eye in some fashion, but what to do with it, he's not yet decided. Nor has he decided whether to play hard to get or to hang about and wait for him to emerge with a satisfied look on his face. Which would he respond to better? What's better?

Sometimes Loki overthinks things.

He's still in the midst of overthinking, in fact, when Stark comes out looking for him. He'll find him quite close by, on a wall beside a garden bed that's being dug up for spring. There are spent pansies littering the ground, having been removed, and a couple bags of compost waiting to be spread. Loki seems to be walking up and down the section of brick wall like it's a balance beam, peering at the dying flowers as he makes a turn at the end, on one foot.

And, oops. There's his quarry. He's not a very good ambush predator. "It always seems like a shame to murder the flowers before their time," he says, gesturing at the pansies with his thumb. "I suppose human beings are always murdering something, though. How was your lecture? You escaped unscathed, I see."

The Scandinavian accent has crept back in a little, but he's still erring more on the side of BBC than incomprehensible.

[starkingenuity]

So. He stuck around. Tony can’t help but grin at that, Cheshire-like in the best of ways. There’s an obvious twinkle to his eyes as he makes a beeline over to Loki, slipping his hands into the pockets of his jeans. He doesn’t have a backpack. He never brings one. It would be too tempting to throw something in there he shouldn’t have and books are beneath him.

“I bonded with the teacher on trying to spell your last name,” he lies. He has no idea what Loki’s first name is, let alone his last name, but he is pretty sure, whoever it is, it’s likely impossible to pronounce let alone spell, with too many vowels in a row and letter with dots or squiggles over them.

Standing up, Tony is decidedly the shorter of the two, though Loki is more delicate, slight even. He’s more expressive, too, as if he’s never learned to make his face behave. Tony suspects he probably has some ADHD, the real kind, not the kind people their age have after their parents had convinced them of it for the last fifteen years of their lives. He takes all of Loki in with a glance, eyes slightly narrowed against the son.

“We gave up in the end and decided to just call you Puck. Hope you like hockey.”

[coldsong]

They're going to be a fun pair, if that grin is any indication. Who is playing with whom, here? Loki can't wait to find out.

He doesn't carry a backpack, himself, but he has a messenger bag, which is currently perched atop the wall near him. It's obviously high-end; sleek, well-formed leather with polished buckles; the kind of thing that costs several hundred dollars, unless it's a custom, handmade piece, in which case it costs thousands. Its owner has deliberately defaced it by scribbling on it with paint pens, and possibly also by kicking it across the ground at some point.

"Oh, you can spell, too? Your talents abound!" He crouches fluidly where he is on the wall, elbows braced on his knees. "Not that the ability to sleep in a desk isn't a valid skill. God knows I can't manage it."

"Ugh, hockey? Do I bloody look Canadian?" He can sound Canadian, if need be. "It's Loki, by the way. Odinson, which isn't that hard to spell but I suppose a beginner needs to be aware of his limitations."

He's being a dick, but his smile isn't unfriendly. "But I will answer to Puck, if that's easier for you. When's your next class?"

[starkingenuity]

Tony has no issue looking up at the other boy, head tilted in unmasked amusement. His posture is loose, carefree, and an obvious nod to the way he has lived and will continue to live his life. “Maybe you can help me with spelling before the voice throwing?”

Away from his parents, Tony hasn’t found the need to show off his intelligence. This school is not a place where he can shine anyway. His interests lie in the more practical, the more realistic, but even the math courses are ridiculously simplistic here. He’s bored. He’s unchallenged. And he feels no need to prove himself to anyone. Not even to Loki Odinson.

“But I might already have your first name. L-o-w-k-e-y. Low Key,” he purposefully messes up. “By the way, suits you perfectly. You pretty much blend into the crowd.” It’s the furthest from the truth that anyone could get with this kid, but Tony wants to make him laugh. He’s got a great laugh. “Puck’s just easier all the way around. One syllable. And uh I don’t have a next class. I hit my daily quota. Guess I could go to chemistry to get the rest of my nap in. Where are you headed?”

[coldsong]

Loki, by contrast, feels a thirst to prove himself, so all-encompassing that it matters not a whit that the people he wants to prove himself to are thousands of miles away and across an ocean. They're not here, and he will absolutely take that out on anyone else who gives him the time of day. Maybe that's part of the source of his frenetic energy, the flash of analytical hunger in those ice-green eyes. Tony Stark has just given him the time of day, and he's going to take whatever else he can get from him.

Which is not to say Tony will get nothing in return. 'Low Key' earns him the laugh he was looking for, a bright crystalline giggle with breathy borders, which lights up Loki's entire face. "Precisely. I'm quite shy and retiring, me."

He hops off the wall and shoulders his bag. "Mind you, I'm going to need you to commit to spelling 'Puck' properly if that's what you intend to call me. No sneaking an 'f' in, in place of the 'p'."

He pauses, reconsiders, and says, "At least, not unless the occasion specifically calls for it."

"I have a swimming class at five, but nothing between now and then," he says. "Normally, I would hitchhike into town, but if you truly mean to engage me as your vocal tutor," funny how he almost purrs those words, "it might be a better use of our time to find a place to practice."

[starkingenuity]

“How about if I just drive you?” Tony’s infatuated. Loki has to know that by now, considering how closely he’s monitoring Tony’s attention levels. It’s not often that he meets someone that genuinely seems to want to be around him and Tony isn’t going to let that go. “By the time we get there, I should at least know how to spell Puck with a P.”

He could jump the other, somewhat cheeky little banter, but he’s not going to. Tony doesn’t date, he has one night stands. Or so his reputation states. He’s pretty sure that’s a dig in his direction and he’s going to ignore it for the time being.

He had a feeling that Loki will continue to fascinate and often times infuriate him for as long as the other kid can stand to be in his presence.

That’s usually about a week for Tony.

So he’s not going to waste any time with it.

“What do you do in town? Give impromptu poetry readings at the cafe?”

[coldsong]

He can tell he's caught the other young man's eye, for certain. He's not sure how much of that is chemistry and how much is just idle curiosity and lack of a better diversion in front of him, but that actually doesn't matter to Loki. All attention is good attention. At the moment, the attention even seems to be positive. A bonus.

"I suppose that would be less of a risk to my personal safety," he says. "Depending on how you drive." He has a thoughtful tilt to his head for a moment, grin fading into something incrementally softer.

Loki doesn't have a car here. He has a bicycle, which gets him around campus and to close convenience and grocery stores, but the truth is he's not really meant to be able to go far. Permitting him neither a vehicle nor an American license is one of his father's informal quarantine systems. That only goes so far, though, for a person with any charm or resourcefulness at all. Loki has plenty of both.

But Tony's playful banter is actually spot on target, and said target is a little reluctant to admit it, in case it was meant to be an absurdist joke. "Well...only on open mic night," he says, looking a little awkward for the first time. "And never my own work."

He coughs sheepishly. "This time of day I normally just stalk around Wal-Mart or one of the other shops and people-watch. Or, ah, pick pockets."

[starkingenuity]

With wide eyes, Tony sees what his last little mocking jest had caused and his mind splits into two scenarios. Poking further fun at Loki risks ending a friendship before it’s even begun. He’s got such a good arsenal to use against him, but he isn’t sure how temperamental Loki is. Now, Tony’s not in the habit of behaving appropriately, or of trying to make sure he treats everyone kindly, but the consequences of not doing so are steep. His second choice is to just fall silent, stick the comments under his hat, and maybe hold onto it for later. If Loki does actually try to perform at the cafe, well that’s something he has to see for himself. How’s he going to do that if the guy is mad at him?

Oooooh but keeping his mouth shut is so hard! Tony almost wants to pull down his cheeks in aggravation when Loki gives him a kind of reprieve.

“Why are you pick-pocketing?” His eyes are wide, curiosity genuine. “You’re going to get yourself kicked out and then no one will keep me awake in class. You’re letting me down already, Puck, and we only just met.”

[coldsong]

It's hard to say how Loki would react to making fun. There's obviously a reason he doesn't share his own work, so there's something there that's sensitive, but if he weren't open to a little mockery he'd already be annoyed with Tony. Waiting and watching for opportunity is probably the best move Stark could make, though, and while Loki continues to look a bit sheepish about the pick-pocketing, mirth sparks in his eyes again.

"Well, I don't keep any of it," he says. "Especially not at Wal-Mart, I'm sure the people shopping there have enough problems. It's only for something to do. I always turn things in at the Lost and Found later."

You'd think the employees would start to recognize that and get suspicious, but they're working a godawful job for low pay; as far as Loki can tell, they're not paid enough to care what he does.

"Normally, I just take a set of keys, turn their car around in the lot and rearrange all the radio stations."

There's a reason he wanted to read for Puck, evidently.

[starkingenuity]

Tony has seen and done a whole lot of things, but he's never been part of something so pointlessly mischievous before. Pausing, Tony gives Loki quite the look, incredulous and confused, before he bursts out laughing. "That's awful. A man's radio channels are sacred. What's your problem," he stresses in a way that ought to suggest to Loki that he's about to have a compatriot in his little schemes.

Technically, Tony's not supposed to have a car here. He's at this school because he can't be trusted, so his father says, to be anywhere with too much distraction. The car Tony drives is nothing outwardly fancy because of this. He had to pay for the hunk of junk with cash, three hundred dollars to be exact, and he's turned the POS into something that had been by no means road worthy to something that runs halfway decent.

Not many kids these days would be excited by an old Camaro, but Tony loves her. She's cherry red with a white racing stripe down the center. He did both paintjobs himself. Let Loki laugh if he wants. People without cars can't be choosy.

"Her name's Friday. Be gentle. The passenger door needs to be rewelded."

[coldsong]

Technically, Loki's problems are many. He has no close friends here (or anywhere else, if he's honest), he's got way too much energy for his own good, and he's basically an asshole. At least he's doing something to curb his destructive impulses a little bit, right? If it weren't picking pockets, it could be something far worse.

Tony's laughter warms him a little, though. It's nice to have one's work appreciated. He's never told anyone what he does for fun around here before, under the assumption that it's so weird they wouldn't believe him. "I take it I'm not allowed to touch yours, then," he says with a smile. It's not meant as innuendo this time. "I'll try to keep my hands to myself."

Loki does not actually care a bit what kind of jalopy Stark drives. It'll get them places faster than his bike would, so he's got no right to complain. He looks it over thoughtfully. "Am I expected to refer to her by name, then? Did you work on this car, yourself?"

He actually knows fuck-all about cars, but he does glance in roughly the right place when Tony says the door needs to be rewelded, and he's obligingly gentle with it. "I have one back home, but I wasn't allowed to bring it."

[starkingenuity]

“Are you old enough to drive in— Where are you from? Your accent is all over the place.” There are so many ‘gifted’ (otherwise known as wealthy) students from all over the world here and Tony’s gotten to know a far few accents over the course of his time here. He does do other things than sleep it seems. He gives Loki a once over as they climb into Friday.

He’s not going to justify the other question with an answer. He more or less built this beautiful beast from the chassis on up and if Loki can’t appreciate the fire craftsmanship, then Tony isn’t going to waste his time getting into the literal nuts and bolts of the car.

As he gets money, he pours it all into her. Who needs a girlfriend when you have a sexy hobby like body shop work? Tony doesn’t bother with a seatbelt. His side of the Camaro doesn’t even have one. He puts the car into gear and she hums like the sex kitten she is. He’d had a hand on ever piece of her engine. He’s allowed to anthropomorphIze his baby.

“And don’t try to make up a country. There’s a fifty percent chance I’ll know you’re lying to me.” The wheels peel out before Loki can answer and they burst down the street.

[coldsong]

"Norway," he says with a bright grin. "The driving age is eighteen there, so I am old enough, but not by much. Old enough to drink legally there, as well, although it doesn't seem that the legality matters much in the States, does it?"

He should have made up a country, just to see if he could get away with it, but after admitting he picks pockets and goes to poetry readings for fun, he doesn't see much of a point in hiding that prosaic a detail about himself. "I've studied accents since I was six years old. I've almost got American down, but it's more fun to make people think I'm not clear on what they're saying to me."

"Mind you," he adds thoughtfully, "there's a wide range of American accents, as well. Southern is easiest to make fun of, but I rather prefer Midwestern."

Loki, likewise, doesn't bother with a seatbelt, although he does look mildly surprised by the suddenness and speed at which Tony takes off. He chuckles softly, almost under his breath, and grins. "My car's just off the rack, though, so to speak, nothing special. Only a little Japanese sedan. It's my brother who's the motorhead."

"And you. I take it this is what you do, rather than paying attention in class? I already know where you come from. This isn't quite what I expected, somehow."