4th Floor Common Room, Late Thursday Afternoon

[refused2berescued]

After her long swim, Uma was feeling slightly more like she could handle interacting with people without wanting to pounce on them. So rather than holing up in her room after showering the salt and sand off, she stopped in only long enough to grab her supplies and then made her way into the common room to rebraid her hair. Back home, she'd trained Gil and Harry to help, which made the process go by a lot faster. She didn't have anyone here to help, but at least she had the TV and could find something that wasn't Auradon propaganda to pass the hours while she worked on her hair.

Bonus if someone came by with more food than they knew what to do with, which seemed to happen a lot.

[Open common room and I'm done spamming the f-list for the day!]

Comments

[refused2berescued]

"Yeah, I don't take 'em down that often," Uma said, parting out a new section of hair with her comb. She had quite a little workstation set up: comb, elastics, hair grease, the works. "I usually just wash 'em in the braids and go. But every so often I need to take them out and redo them."

And after the chlorine last week and the saltwater this week, today seemed as good a day as any. "You're Ringo, right?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Yep!" Ringo beamed at having her name remembered. "And you're Uma!" Some people were surprised to discover that Ringo was actually pretty good at remembering people.

[refused2berescued]

So was Uma. Knowing everyone's name was important in a captain. And in survival in general.

"So I am," she said, lazily. "What's up with you? Surviving the week?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo wrinkled her nose and rolled her eyes. "You get used to it after a couple of years," she sighed.

[refused2berescued]

"So this happens regularly?" Uma wrinkled her nose. "It wouldn't be so bad if everyone wasn't just so weird about sex. Just do it and get it out of your system."

[soniaroadsqueen]

"'Bout once a year," Ringo nodded.

She flushed slightly. "And I guess I'm one of those weird people, too."

[refused2berescued]

Guess how utterly unsurprised by that she was, Ringo. Just guess.

"So, what?" she asked, frowning. "Like, is there some kind of big sex taboo? The first person you do it with, you're stuck with forever? Why is everyone so touchy about it?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo pursed her lips thoughtfully. "I don't know," she admitted after a moment. "I mean, it's probably different for each person, right? Like, everyone's got their own reasons?"

She shrugged. "I think, for me, I just want it to be special, you know? It doesn't have to be forever or anything, but it should, I don't know, mean something?"

[refused2berescued]

"It means stuff," Uma said, shrugging. "Fun, usually. Or that you think someone's hot. Or that you were bored and thought they'd be more interesting than whatever else is going on. Why does it have to mean anything more than that?" She gestured around the room, taking in the campus at large. "Bet there'd be a lot fewer grumpy people around if they'd all just agreed that it didn't have to mean anything."

[soniaroadsqueen]

After a moment to consider that, Ringo let out a little laugh. "Are you accusing me of being grumpy?" she asked. Two years at Fandom, and the chance to grow up a bit that that had given her, meant that she sounded amused rather than insecure.

[refused2berescued]

"I don't know you well enough to say," Uma said, though 'grumpy' probably wasn't the word she'd have used for this interaction herself. "But for most of the people I dealt with this week? Yeah."

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Well," Ringo drawled the word out thoughtfully. "That might be more because no one really likes to, you know, not be in control of themselves. The sex is just part of it, right?"

Ringo wasn't exactly a huge fan of it herself, even if she had sort of gotten used to it.

[refused2berescued]

"But you are in control," Uma said, tucking another finished braid up into the loose bun on her head. "You haven't jumped on anyone you didn't intend to, did you?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Well." Ringo shook her head, flushing slightly at some old memories. "Not this year. But in the past?" She sighed. "Let's just say I didn't have the best time."

[refused2berescued]

"Betcha if you didn't keep everything so pent up, you'd know how to deal with it," Uma drawled. "You gotta know how to let the pressure off without waiting for it all to explode."

[soniaroadsqueen]

"I've got pretty good outlets most of the time." Ringo shrugged. "So I don't know if I'd say I'm pent up."

She grinned, slightly amused. "Besides, I don't know that many people here on the island that I'm particularly interested in sleeping with."