Fandom High Dormitories

Bruce had kept himself busy working all week. But with prom tomorrow, he was giving himself a couple days off. Probably more if there was some kind of weirdness after Prom. That always seemed to happen. Bruce was being hopeful with his personal schedule, but hope only went so far.

So tonight, Bruce was in the common room. No TV, though. Just him and a book, and some cookies that he baked because apparently when he stopped doing work he had plenty of free time for things like baking cookies. And apparently Bruce was no good at not doing anything, unless it involved not doing anything in a broody way. Which, of course, he couldn't do if he was going to be properly social tomorrow.

Therefore, nearly spontaneous cookies, based on an Alfred Pennyworth recipe Bruce had memorized years ago. And he was making some more while he continued to read. Just for you, Fandom.

[OOC: I'm past deadline hell for the moment, so I post a CR.]

Bruce had barely walked into the common room before a pie went whizzing past his head and splattered against the wall. Following the path of travel back to the source, he saw reason to duck as another pie was winged over his head. As he dove to the side, he caught a quick look at the culprit standing on the kitchen counter.

It looked like a leprechaun standing next to a tray filled with pies. But it was a little too green-skinned and its teeth were a little too pointy. Apparently a gremlin was celebrating some unholy combination of Pi Day and Saint Patrick's Day the only way it knew how: with slapstick comedy.

And that was fine as far as Bruce was concerned. A leprechaun meant potential magical powers he didn't understand and a legendary ability to flee capture. A gremlin could be defeated with ease.

As the next pie made its way toward his head, Bruce waited, then dodged, got a hand on the back of the pie plate so he could change its direction, and flung it back at the gremlin in one smooth motion. The pie hit the gremlin just as it was about to throw another one (in fact, it was about 14% of the way through its throwing motion). The gremlin stumbled back blindly, backed into a pot, fell into it, and then the suddenly potted gremlin fell off the counter. Bruce walked over casually, grabbed the pot's lid, and secured it to seal the gremlin in for the time being.

After inspecting a tray with several remaining unthrown pies, Bruce decided that they were free of gremlin venom. So carried the tray over by the couches for people to share. He wasn't sure if it was the gremlin who made them, or if the gremlin stole them, but Bruce had to admit that they tasted pretty good.

[OOC: I'm starting to realize that Bruce has a long history of battling individual gremlins. I need to do something with this.

Anyway, CR is open. There is pie. And a gremlin in a pot in the kitchen.]

Maybe it was surprising, but Bruce's first move once he was back in Fandom wasn't to spend the whole day in the cave. There was plenty of time for that coming up in the next few days. For now, the most important thing was figuring out his new routine. With Spring Break marking a rough halfway point to the end of the semester, he needed to work out priorities and how they fit into his schedule during the remaining stretch run.

So, of course, he had a day planner with all of the unavoidable planned distractions over the next couple of months (prom, finals, a few floating weekends for unspecified insanity), and some time for off-island training, regular class work, that kind of stuff.

The biggest change to his previous planning was making sure he scheduled some time for social behavior instead of just letting it happen when he needed a break. The fact that this was likely to be the last stretch of time where he would ever have a relatively normal life had come into sharp focus for Bruce recently. And with that came the realization that it might not be a bad idea to actually experience relative normalcy in a somewhat genuine way rather than putting on a complete facade like he was accustomed to.

It was that line of thinking that had him buying drinks for a whole bar in Rio. Twice. And now it resulted in his bringing pizza to the common room and turning on Oscars pre-show coverage so that people could have a meal, some entertainment, and not focus on the day planner.

[OOC: In celebration of getting rid of a migraine, I post a CR. Huzzah!]

Bruce was watching cable news. Nothing but talk of financial meltdowns, political bickering, angry old people yelling at each other, and something about cute animals every fifteen minutes or so.

It wasn't terribly exciting or interesting or anything. It was exactly what the night called for. Because dear god, Bruce needed a quiet night in after the way his week had been going.

With that in mind, he was drinking water, eating some crackers, and wearing a plain black hoodie. Nothing exciting at all. This was a matter of willpower, and nobody had more willpower than Bruce Wayne.

Well, by definition any given Green Lantern probably did. But screw those guys, willpower wasn't even an emotion.

[OOC: Seriously, screw those guys.]

"Who do you think you're kidding?" Bruce asked the gremlin who was sitting on the couch in a dog costume. "Nobody's going to fall for that." The gremlin grumbled, "Bark!"

Bruce walked into the kitchen area for a moment and walked back out with an orange and a large paper bag. "Here boy," he said, whistling and holding the orange like a ball. "Fetch!"

Bruce threw the orange back into the kitchen, taking his eye off the gremlin long enough for the gremlin to pounce, its trickery having clearly paid off! Soon its teeth would sink into tender flesh and... Suddenly the gremlin's world was very dark.

Bruce folded the top of the bag to close it as the gremlin shook the bag from inside. Grabbing a marker, he wrote, 'GREMLIN DRESSED LIKE A PUPPY. DO NOT OPEN,' put the bag down on the table, and had a seat on the couch.

After a few minutes, the gremlin stopped fighting against the bag and took a nap.

It was a weird evening.

[OOC: No clue.]

It had been a long day, at the end of a long weekend, at the end of a long week, and so on. So Bruce was pleased enough to take it easy for a night and head to the common room. But that was just a cover for something he really wanted to test.

When Bruce made his contributions to remembering everything back into existence, he cheated in one area and changed one small detail in the dorms. Bruce turned the television on and flipped channels freely.

He won.

That - and the overall return of Fandom, his home reality, his cave, and apparently all other realities - meant that he was even willing to compromise from his habit of watching true crime documentaries by watching a stupid-looking Christmas movie about a con. Why not? Twas the season, after all.

[OOC: TAKE THAT, TV! Ahem. The common room is open, naturally.]

Bruce was in the common room with a book and a pile of socks. Next to the socks was a sign.
FREE SOCKS
FRESHLY LAUNDERED

You see, Bruce had finally finished his laundry after the recent... unpleasantness with the laundry machines. But when he pulled them out, all of the socks were argyle in various sizes. Did machines change them? Were they secretly argyle all along and were just pretending to be single toned socks that fit Bruce? Did gremlins switch them mid-wash? Bruce didn't know, and buying new socks, throwing them in the same machine, and watching from a hidden location didn't reveal anything useful.

So screw it, he was just going to get more new socks and give these away. Because Bruce Wayne didn't wear argyle socks. Just... no.

[OOC: Inspiration for the post taken from momslilassassin. Open CR, naturally. Take the socks.]

Kicking that fake goat in class yesterday had felt good. Kicking the punching bag repeatedly felt better, mainly because Bruce knew it was actually solid and not just some solid-seeming hologram. (Not that he would have kicked a real goat in the face, unless the goat started it.) Really, that was the end result of his more anti-social feelings most of the week. When you didn't feel much like dealing with people, you could just deal with an inanimate object that you could hit as hard as you could. And after that, normalcy could be achieved once again.

After a while, he was almost feeling relatively chipper! But he would be able to fake it way before then.

[OOC: I'm up way too early. Why not post? Open gym, with the warning that I'll be spotty later in the morning.]

While the student council races seemed to be starting up, Bruce had done his best to ignore them as he went about the day. It wasn't easy - there was a cupcake waiting for him this morning, then posters on the way to the gym and even some in the bathroom. But for the most part, he just spent the day training as much as he could while ignoring everything else going on.

But doing that all day led to some exhaustion, and even Bruce needed a break. The television seemed to be taunting him a little, though, as it showed episodes of Hoarders. Yes, yes, he had an area in a hidden cave where he was keeping some personal trophies from his time in Fandom, including things that had virtually no significance, even to him. That didn't mean he was a hoarder, A&E. It just meant that he was nostalgic.

He could stop any time he wanted. And he would, too! Just not now.

[OOC: Open CR, of course. I think I really wanted to post all three guys today.]

Sure, his first workshop was first period, but that wasn't until 9:00. That gave Bruce plenty of time to start his day with a run around the island while still leaving time for a trip to the gym. After stretching out and warming up, Bruce actually skipped the punching bag, choosing a lower intensity workout before the first day of class he'd had in a while. And it would still be there later for him to beat up using the new moves he'd learned while he was on his vacation.

But for now, he was sticking to an exercise bike. Because a few laps around the island on foot apparently wasn't enough of that kind of thing for Bruce.

[OOC: I've been up for way too long already this morning. I blame technology for this. Open gym is, naturally, open.]

Today was Bruce's birthday, although hardly anyone knew that. He wasn't usually one for birthday celebrations, after all. It just didn't seem the same without his parents. But he was willing to make a slight change to his routine of brooding this time. After all, he was seventeen. He had now officially lived more than half of his life without his parents. And even though the pain of that loss was still as raw as it was when he was a child, he felt he could take the opportunity to embrace something from his youth.

And so Bruce was in the common room, eating some cereal he claimed on his way back to his room last night and watching the old Gray Ghost show on DVD. It was his favorite show when he was a kid. It probably wasn't too surprising that seeing a heroic masked man fight for what was right left a mark on him.

Bruce felt that a tribute to his childhood was probably the beat gift he could possibly give himself. And he could confirm that the Rice Krispies from last night weren't poisoned.

[OOC: Open CR! Come see Bruce be a normal human being for his birthday!]

When Bruce came out into the common room to do some reading on seventeenth century agrarian societies, he wasn't expecting to find a carton of eggnog next to a snoring gremlin. A quick sniff suggested that whatever the gremlin spiked his nog with, it was very strong.

Bruce could have disposed of the gremlin somehow, but with it right there, he couldn't help but watch it, from a safe distance, of course. He was really curious how a drunken - or by the time it woke up, hungover - gremlin might act. Sue him.

[OOC: I'm bored. Come watch the gremlin! Get bit if you want! I'm not going to stop you from doing that if it's what you want!]

The fall trip didn't start until tomorrow, but Bruce was already completely packed. Honestly, he was probably packed too early and too effectively because, ahem, he found himself having nothing to occupy his time after he finished his morning exercises. This left him in the undesirable position of trying to find something to take up some of his time in the common room. He turned the TV on for the benefit of anyone else who might come in since he had learned that it didn't like him and wouldn't be showing anything he might actually want to watch.

Bruce managed to find a puzzle, flipped all the pieces over, and tried to see if he could put it together without the benefit of a colorful picture to help him. Meanwhile, the TV was stuck on ABC Family, which was showing some cheerleader movies. It's not that he had a problem with cheerleaders, he just had no desire to watch movies about them. Oh well. He'd survived greater tragedies than this.

[OOC: Around until about 11 AM Central, then slow throughout the day. But I'm bored right now, so CR.]

Bruce was just going to walk past the common room and back to his dorm after his morning run, but a glance into the room meant that he saw one of the more bizarre sights he'd seen recently. There was a disembodied hand holding the remote control. It was channel surfing. Occasionally it would use the on-screen guide and scroll quickly through that.

As Bruce walked into the common room to investigate more closely, another hand went flying through the air. Out of pure instinct, Bruce raised his hand. The second Thing made solid contact with Bruce's hand, making this the first high five Bruce had ever experienced with a disembodied hand.

A small detail, but Bruce noticed both hands were left hands. It seemed strange to have two lefties in the same room, especially under these circumstances. All this weirdness meant that Bruce needed to take a seat and just observe for a while. He couldn't shake the feeling that the second thing was observing him right back, possibly looking for another excuse to high five. The first one, clearly, was too busy observing the TV.

[OOC: Just saying, if I were a disembodied hand, I would never stop giving high fives. Anyway, I'm up early on a Saturday, why not have an open CR?

ETA: Running off for an hour or so, then pinging will be slowish.]

Bruce was awake at the crack of dawn for his regular Saturday training. But that was earlier. Now he just wanted to relax. He sat down with a bowl of cereal and turned the TV, unaware of the horror that awaited him.

"The Golf Channel?" he asked himself. "No." When he tried to use the remote to change channels, the buttons were unresponsive. He got up to use the buttons on the TV, but those wouldn't chage either. When he tried turning the TV off, the volume just increased.

Resigned to his fate watching the Golf Channel, Bruce went back to his cereal and wondered if it was early enough on a Saturday morning that nobody would notice if he pulled the TV apart and started messing with the wiring. Probably not. Damn.

[OOC: I'm up early, I'm heading out for the day in like four hours, why not force Batman to watch golf tips and highlights?

Open to morning people but, as I mentioned, I'm out of here at 11 AM Central.]