3rd Floor Common Room, Late Friday Morning (... Okay, Noon)

[amitragic]

So that was that on 2020, huh?

Ulysses wished he'd gone to a party, wished he'd gotten wasted, wished he'd sloppily made out with someone at midnight and then gone back to someone else's place after... But the year had ended about the same as it had gone: vaguely disappointing, kind of meh. And so Ulysses'd found himself doing what he'd been doing most of the year, which was hanging out in his room in his boxers, smoking and reading conspiracy theories on his phone.

So far, 2021 wasn't looking much hotter for him. But at least he was out in the common room - in some fetching neon plaid pajama pants that made the heather t-shirt he was wearing up top look even more nondescript than it would have otherwise - curled up on the couch, eating a damn near overflowing bowl of Lucky Charms.

While scrolling on his phone. Look, at least it wasn't actually more conspiracies, right now!

... Because it was everyone's Insta and Snapchat videos and pics from last night, because nothing really, truly made New Year's Day like a severe case of FOMO and vowing to do better in another 365 days.

There were, for some reason, about a dozen boxes of Lucky Charms on the counter in the kitchen area, and more than enough milk in the fridge to complement most, if not even all of it. So if anyone wanted to join him, at least they were all getting breakfast.

[ooc: The first CR post of 2021 is open!]

Comments

[snowdroplace]

This wasn't her floor but it was just so quiet when she got back from home that Elli couldn't help but go looking for other people.

"Oh, hello!" she said, smiling as she looked in.

[amitragic]

If only Ulysses hadn't been so terrible with names, he might've managed more than a vaguely awkward, "Oh, hey," back at her.

Though at least half of that was because he'd just seen what some of the theater kids from his old school had been up to last night, and ugh, how had he let his NYE be such a bust?

A beat later he glanced up a second time and added, "Uh, there's way too much cereal here, if you want some."

[snowdroplace]

"Did you buy it?" she wondered, with a bit of a startled lilt to the end of that as she wandered on in and over to the kitchen and realized just how much cereal there was. "Or is this the island?"

Well.

She didn't much like it but at least cereal was pretty harmless...

[amitragic]

Ulysses gave a shrug that seemed to involve his entire left arm on top of the basic shoulder-movement. "The island?" he said. "The dorms? Fuck if I know, but it wasn't me."

He didn't have the kind of money to go that hard with buying cereal.

[snowdroplace]

Elli surveyed the cereal carefully. Alright, she also winced at his swearing.

"I think I'll pass," she decided, going instead to get a granola bar. "Just in case something's weird about it."

[amitragic]

"It's good cereal," Ulysses replied, with much more moderate a shrug this time. "But suit yourself."

Granola bar, though. Seriously, Elli? It was like you wanted something other than sugar for breakfast!

[snowdroplace]

Had he looked at the sugar content of most granola bars? They were almost as bad as chocolate bars!

"I'm sure it is," she said, in case he was offended. "I'm just concerned it will make us turn into something or act strange."

[amitragic]

But they looked more healthy!

Let's be real, Ulysses rarely looked too closely at the contents of whatever he was stuffing his face with, so he was entirely at the mercy of marketing.

"I don't know, I know there's a lot of food that gets delivered here in like, total excess," he said. "Never heard of it doing anything to anyone."

[snowdroplace]

"This is true," she admitted, getting a glass of milk as well. "But these weren't delivered, so far as we know, right? It's one thing when we know where the food came from but another thing entirely when it just... appears out of thin air."

[amitragic]

Ulysses, who also routinely ate the things that literally fell out of the sky, offered her another shrug.

"Well, I'm fine so far," he said, "and Troy seemd to be fine so far, and he's had way more than I have."

[snowdroplace]

"Even still," she said mildly. "It doesn't hurt to have someone who hasn't eaten it just in case. Especially since I know first aid."

Elli was a little pessimistic about the island. It was amazing she'd come back at all.

[amitragic]

Meanwhile, Ulysses had basically not been blessed with any kind of self-preservation instinct to speak of.

He tilted his head. By kind of a lot, actually. "You really think it'd do something where first aid would help? And not, like, a full-on transformation."

[snowdroplace]

“It certainly can’t hurt to have someone knowing first aid around,” Elli ventured. “Even leaving aside the island, people can fall or cut themselves while cooking and those injuries can be significant if you fall wrong or are unlucky with a knife. Accidents happen.”

[amitragic]

"I mean, now you're just making a case for eating the cereal," Ulysses pointed out, shoving another spoonful of cereal into his mouth as if to make a point, before gesturing towards the kitchen with the spoon. "'Cause that just makes cooking sound really dangerous."

[snowdroplace]

Elli laughed.

“Everything is dangerous if you think about long enough, don’t you think?”

[amitragic]

Ulysses sighed as his head tilted again. "Yeah..."

Uly, please. Sounding wistful about it was not a good look.

[snowdroplace]

She blinked.

“I must have heard wrong,” Elli said slowly, “but that sort of sounded like you wanted things to be dangerous?”

Was he another madman here?

[amitragic]

Kiiiind of, yes. But in a lowkey way?

"I mean, uh, no?" Ulysses said, sort of straightening up in his seat, like he'd been caught doing something he shouldn't have been doing. "But, like... Beats being bored."

[snowdroplace]

"That's what hobbies are for," Elli said briskly. "Not danger."

[amitragic]

"I don't know," Ulysses said, shrugging vaguely, "some people's hobbies are kinda dangerous, you know? Haven't you heard of like, extreme sports?"

Which he would never do because he severely lacked the discipline and general athletic... ability at all.

[x_discospider_x]

"Oh, hey, Elli," Troy greeted, smiling up from his literal mixing bowl fill of cereal and waving the spoon at her a little. "How's it going?"

[snowdroplace]

"Hi Troy," she said and she was glad enough to see him that she was going to ignore the horrifying amounts of sugar he was ingesting.

For now.

She might cycle back around to it.

"I just got back from my home," she said. "I spent the holidays with my family. How are you?"

[x_discospider_x]

"Not bad! Pretty good, actually! I've been taking it easy..." He said it like he expected her to be proud of him for that. "...and my leg's barely even bothering me anymore, so I should be good and ready to go for classes next week!"

[snowdroplace]

Well... he had been meant to take it easy, so Elli couldn’t negatively judge him too hard for that.

“Good,” she said warmly. “I’m glad you’re doing so much better! Have you been keeping up with the stretches suggested so your first day back to full motion doesn’t wind up causing you pain?”

Those stretches were important!

[x_discospider_x]

"Yes," Troy reported, dutifully, with a small grin, "actually, I have. I know it's important stretch after an injury..."

He had had more than his fair share!

He probably wasn't as...diligent with them as he should be, but he still did them a little!

[snowdroplace]

Her smile got brighter.

“Oh, good,” she said relieved. “Honestly, the number of people who don’t listen and then are shocked when their injuries don’t heal properly is far too many.”