A Glimpse into the Den of Vice
The room is about 10×15 feet in width and length, and has ceilings about 9 feet tall. The layout could be described as minimalist, with furniture and the bunked beds pushed towards the walls, leaving an empty center, an overall look highly indicative of several sessions of trial and error aimed at maximizing human space. The walls are adorned with the faces of immortalized musicians such as Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix, along with those of a few contemporary media figures possessing notably less global significance but no less popularity in our current world (pan to Matthew Fox posing ruggedly in his trademark, bad-boy-doctor look on the “Lost” poster loosely pinned above the couch). The floor, which at some point was likely khaki-tan in color, weakly emits a dark and variable hue, certainly trapping more light than reflecting it, but is speckled with shining stars like the night sky in the desert. These are not ordinary stars in the sense of prodigious balls of flaming gas, but in the sense of sharp, multicolored, and Chinese-made confetti pieces that prick your feet and constantly provoke the question, “what the fuck happened in here last night?”
The room’s main entrance connects directly to the open air, with a secondary door leading to the bathroom in the style of only the of finest motel rooms. While this description hints at condescension, consider that this room is an on-campus student dormitory; circumventing the traditional “hallway” connection of student rooms increases personal freedom dramatically, as certain smells, sounds, and actions interact with the dispassionate and impartial SoCal air as opposed to with an authoritarian Resident Assistant.
It is currently around 6pm on a Thursday in the Spring, and a dark-orange glow permeates the room, foreshadowing the darkness that will come as the sun sets completely over the mountains. The door to the Den of Vice is ajar, and feminine residue (in the forms of purses, scarves and sweaters removed) and empty plastic bottles of UV Vodka line the sides of the room, giving it the slightly deflated appearance of a room that recently held a large group but was then suddenly emptied. But the Air of Vice lingers, and it’s only a matter of time until the liveliness resumes and events continue unfolding, those both irrelevant and those that will live in infamy.
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