Anybody Home? (Open)

[Arthur "Wart" Pendragon]

Wart stood, rather stupidly, in front of his new 'dorm room'. He clenched the key in his hand very tightly, knowing how a key and a lock worked, but was honestly too scared to open the door. The reason why was unknown. Even to him. Maybe it was the fact that he didn't even know what a 'dorm' was. But even that wasn't really new. He didn't really know what anything around him was, it was all so strange and unknown to him. 'Unknown' was becoming word that was much too friendly with him.

And maybe that's what scared him. That it was all unknown. Out of a few things--such as a flying, bird-like thing, soaring through the sky shortly after his arrival here--he had deduced that he was, in fact, in a place similar to the Future Land that Merlin often spoke fondly of. Back at home, Wart had asked a lot about Future Land, about moving pictures and television and Bermuda shorts, and had eventually gotten Merlin to say that there was nothing more to tell him. That he had learned everything about Future Land and had no need to ask anything more. 

In other words: Merlin lied. 

All this unknown-ness came from that one simple fact.

Wart had come to believe that that was the reason he was so frightened. He'd never thought that Merlin would lie. Especially not to him.

His grip on the key grew tighter as he bit his lip. With a sudden rush of pain, Wart realized he'd been gripping the key too tightly. He'd pierced his skin and drawn blood. He heaved a sigh and looked at the key a bit more closely. When he'd first gotten it, he had noticed it was different from the big, clunky keys that had back home, but he was so wrapped up and confused about everything else that he didn't think much of it. Now that he saw it close up, there was major differences. It was smaller, and skinnier, for one; more sleek and elegant. For another, the edges used to unlock the door were sharper. No wonder he'd cut his hand. 

"Where do I find a cloth to bind my hand in?" He asked to no one in particular, not really thinking anyone was around. He briefly considered tearing a bit off the tunic he was wearing, but he realized, quite suddenly, that it was the only thing from home he had left. No. He wouldn't ruin the last thing he had, especially just for such a small scratch. 

[Peter Pan]

Peter came skipping down the hall, like you do, when he noticed a new boy standing outside his door and examining his head. That was strange. This whole place was strange, but people didn’t normally just stand there ad stare at their hands…not unless there was something in their hands. Maybe this boy was holding a bug or caterpillar or a tiny, furry bunny-rabbit. Maybe it was a miniature walkie-talkie. The possibilities were endless, and Peter’s interest was suddenly piqued.

“What is that? What’ve you got?” He demanded, bounding up to the boy without so much as an introduction. He peered into the boy’s hand over his shoulder. “Blood.” He observed, noticing the scratch. “That’s unfortunate. How’d you hurt yourself?”

He smiled at the other boy and slung an arm around his shoulders, and then he started to walk, leading him away from the dormitory door. “My name’s Peter, what’s yours? I’m hungry, so I think we should go somewhere that serves food. Oh, right, you’re scratch…” He remembered the boy’s injury and cast about for a solution. “Why don’t you stick it in your mouth and suck on it?” He said, offering a sanitary solution.

[Arthur "Wart" Pendragon]

Wart abruptly became aware of the fact that he was no longer alone in the dorms. The sound of a teenage male made him jump. And then freeze. He remembered freezing like this whenever he was scared before Merlin came along. Oh how he hated freezing, but in this case he didn't really know any other way to react. The boy, whomever he was, had just popped out of thin air...

For a moment, Wart just didn't process anything. He knew the boy was talking, but what he was saying wasn't very clear. To him, it all just seemed like a large jumble of unintelligible words. Then, suddenly, an arm was slug around him and he was being dragged off by who he expected to be the boy who was talking before. 
There was more talking before a moment of blessed silence. Wart's ears stopped ringing and he took a moment to think back. Okay. So first the boy had said something about blood, then about food, and then the scratch on his hand...

"Oh. Um--Er--" Wart tried to make a sentence or at least think of a some sort of reply, but after a second he just sighed and gave up, "You talk really fast. Did you know that?"
As his brain picked up more and more of what the other boy had said, Wart brought his hand up to his mouth and licked of the little bit of blood on it. He'd always done that back home, so why didn't he think about doing that before? 

"And, um, food. That sounds nice..." Wart trailed off for a moment, thinking of the other questions this boy--Peter he suddenly realized--had asked. "And my name's Arthur Pendragon, but most people call me Wart."

[Peter Pan]

“You talk really fast. Did you know that?”

Peter was a little offended. “I most certainly do not talk really fast! The rest of the world talks really slow.” He reasoned, crossing his arms over his chest and putting on what he called his “active sulking” face. The active sulking face was practical, because it allowed him to still run around and do things while still appearing thoroughly unsatisfied with the goings-on. The active sulking face didn’t last long. It never did, just like the rest of Peter’s emotions.

He led the way to the door leading out of their hall, but discovered that it was locked. “Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Wart Pendragon.” He said, in a tone of voice cheerful, and completely different than before. “But it appears that some jerkwad has locked us into our dormitory!” He plastered his face up against the door and yelled through it. “JERK!” He bellowed, pounding on the door with his open first. He slumped against it, his cheek sliding down the surface, until he got another idea.

“Hey Wart, you still hungry? We should take the stairs!” And without another word, he skipped down the hall and held a door open that revealed a long, dark, dusty-looking staircase, one for each other floors.

[Arthur "Wart" Pendragon]

"I'm sorry," Wart muttered under his breath as he realized he'd offended Peter. A little niggling feeling of guilt invaded him and he bit his lip. He'd never liked offending anyone. It made people start attacking your kingdom. But that doesn't matter here, the sudden realization made his eyes widen.

"It doesn't matter here," he mumbled, feeling happiness flutter delightfully into his stomach. There was no responsibility here. None. Zip. Nada. Null. That was something here in this Future World that was actually new in a wonderful way.

"Hm?" Wart hummed as he looked back up at Peter. He'd forgotten that he was talking.

Peter's cheerful voice was back. That was a good sign. "Nice to meet--" he was cut off by the other boy complaining about some locking them out of their Dorm. About an... Irkwad? He knew those two words separately, but together it...

His thoughts were silenced as the yelling of the word "JERK!!!", another new word, blasted out his eardrums.

Wart blinked, shocked that this Peter Pan could yell that loud. Actually, he was surprised anyone could yell that loud.

The other boy looked completely dejected at the fact that they were locked in, and Wart lifted his hand to pat his back. "It's okay..." Wart said softly, wondering how someone could get so upset just because they were locked in, "We'll just--"

Before the sentence was out, Peter had already skipped halfway down the hall, still caught on the idea of getting food. He held a door open, revealing stairs that led up to... somewhere. Some other floor of the building he supposed. Wart cracked a smile, realizing that he was actually enjoying the company of this odd boy with the most eratic behavior he had ever seen. Perhaps this place, with it's freedom from being King and with interesting people, wouldn't be so bad after all. He ran down the hallway and bounded up the stairs.