[Oct. 8/11] Common Room, the Dorms, Afternoon

[tomorrowrain]

It wasn't often that Raine showed his face openly in the common area. At least, not in the middle of the day. Especially not on a Saturday afternoon, when nobody was likely to be in classes, and the room was more than likely to have quite a few people in it.

But the fact was, he was hungry. And even if he didn't see anything resembling a warm welcome in the common area in his near future, being able to pinpoint when he'd have an opportunity to eat again in the future didn't change the fact that he was hungry now.

Maybe if he just... kind of kept his head down, he could slip in, grab some cereal or something, and slip out again before anyone started whispering too loudly.

The trick, he was learning all too quickly, was to just avoid eye contact and to not listen too closely to the people around him.

Comments

[ground_me]

"I guess so," she said dubiously. Yeah. Allison did not much believe him when it came to the idea that bizarre things could be delicious. "I've heard I'm pretty boring when it comes to food though, so maybe there's some truth to that."

Though her boring-ness, Allison suspected was going to be tested when it came to Dover and his food. Weird vegan food. He was lucky she liked him. (And that maybe it wasn't horrible.)

A pause as she floundered with the tail end of the conversation before asking, "What's the strangest thing you've ever eaten?"

[tomorrowrain]

There was a moment's pause while Raine thought on that. And then when he did finally come up with something, it occurred to him that he wasn't entirely certain if it was something that he had eaten, or something that he would eat.

... Either way, he figured it didn't matter so long as he didn't try to specify the 'when' of it all.

"I bought a can of bread once," he offered. "Like, cooked. Bread in a can."

[ground_me]

She blinked.

"Wait," Allison said, "that's, like, a real thing?"

It was tempting to laugh, like it was a joke, but he didn't sound like he was joking.

[tomorrowrain]

"Yeah," Raine replied, grinning a little crookedly. "It's a Japanese thing, I guess? They had some in the import section of a supermarket once," or they would. One of those, "and I... couldn't say no to canned bread. I mean, I was curious, you know? I guess canned cheeseburgers are a real thing, too."

[ground_me]

On reflection, in considering this new information, being adventurous with what Dover offered her seemed to be positively tame in comparison.

"That's nasty" Allison protested. "Why do that to perfectly good food? There's no way it'd taste good, right?"

RIGHT?

[tomorrowrain]

"I don't know... People eat canned fish, and canned ham. How different could a canned cheeseburger really be?"

It all seemed like food to Raine!

"I mean, the reason tuna tastes so different out of a can than it does fresh is because they over-cook it until it's just this flaked mess."

[ground_me]

"Right," she said brightly, "no tuna for me for, oh, the next six months."

Ew. Just ew.

"But, I mean, a cheeseburger? With condiments?"

[tomorrowrain]

"With condiments," Raine agreed, trying not to laugh. "Ketchup, pickles, something that probably at least resembles cheese. I think they make it for people going camping, since meat tends to go bad? But I wouldn't want to try one, personally."

Which was exactly why he had intimate knowledge of the flavour of the grey, kind of dog-food-like mess that he was talking about, now. He wasn't going to think about what in the world would have him chowing down on something like that. Especially since they were only available in Germany.

[ground_me]

Allsion contemplated that in horrified silence (for a certain value of horrified) for a moment and then pushed herself up off the couch to make her way over to the kitchen.

That this brought her closer to Raine was something that made her feel a little dizzy. But it was manageable. She'd deal.

"I'm not thinking about this," she announced. "I'm thinking about waffles. Delicious, delightful, waffles. I might be convinced to try the cream cheese grilled cheese waffle thing now, however, because that is far less disgusting than cheeseburger in a can."

[tomorrowrain]

Raine couldn't help it- some of the ever-present tension in his shoulders eased just slightly at that, and he laughed.

"Maybe cream cheese icing," he suggested. "We could decorate your waffles up like a cake, with berries and all? Does that sound like an improvement in the least?"

[ground_me]

"That... that almost sounds edible," she allowed, leaning against the counter for a moment. (The world was not slightly spinny, it was not. It couldn't be if she didn't allow it.) "If there's the right sort of fruit then it might even earn an 'excellent'."

Allison pushed herself away from the counter and over to the fridge. "I wonder if ice cream would go with it?"

[tomorrowrain]

Oh, she was definitely not one for taking delicious risks, was she?

"I happen to know that waffles with ice cream and berries is excellent," he informed her, almost sanctimoniously, though there was still that little bit of a smile on his face, even a bit of a twinkle in his eye. "I have it on the good authority of years of practice, putting ice cream on pretty much everything I could possibly get away with."

[ground_me]

That was because the word risk implied that it would all go dreadfully wrong.

Allison rolled her eyes. "There's no way you put ice cream on everything you could get away with," she scoffed, with a bit of a laugh. "For one, how many kids can afford that much ice cream?"

[tomorrowrain]

"Okay, okay," Raine allowed, holding up his hands in a sort of 'I surrender' pose. "Not everything, no. But, you know... when there was ice cream in the house. When I was feeling brave, or stupid. I mean, you know... weird sundaes and all that?"

[ground_me]

"I like sprinkles and fruit on mine," she allowed, furthering the fact that her taste in food was pretty... boring. Sprinkles and fruit were not very risky. "I've never tried it with waffles though. Ice cream does work with pie however..."

Allison peered into the freezer. "Think chocolate will be okay? There's also one with peanut butter in it, but I'm not putting that on a waffle."

[tomorrowrain]

"Chocolate should be fine," Raine decided. "I mean... they put chocolate syrup onto waffles all of the time in those fancy waffle places, don't they?"

He set his cereal box down on the counter, and then... sort of just stood around there, a bit awkwardly.

"And by fancy, I mean... like... Ihop."

So, not all that fancy.

[ground_me]

"Ihop's fancy enough," Allison said, since it wasn't like she'd got to many fancy places either, except for maybe birthdays and for Christmas and those were never places for breakfast-y foods.

"Chocolate ice cream," she decided, and moved it so it was close to the front of the freezer. "But taking it out now would melt it all." So it could stay there until they were ready. "Maybe you could crush some cereal while I start the waffles? Unless you want big cereal pieces in yours."

Which... okay. Fair.

[tomorrowrain]

"In... my... waffles?" Raine turned a puzzled look toward Allison at that. Something was sort of chewing at his senses, a kind of weird cold-sweat feeling in the pit of his stomach, like he'd been swallowing rocks. But he couldn't quite put a finger on why that was. "That sounds pretty adventurous for you, you know..."

He squinted a little.

"Just how steamrollered did you get...?"

[ground_me]

Huh? What was wrong with what she'd said?

Allison reviewed her own words and looked at him, confused. "What does that have to do with anything?" She laughed. "Come off it, I'm just a little tired. It's no big deal."

[tomorrowrain]

"If you say so..." Raine sounded a little dubious, but he was going to let it slide, reaching for his cereal box again and opening it up. He wasn't going to... to crunch up any bits, though. He was going to just... maybe eat a handful while he still could. Some part of him was just flat-out convinced that he wasn't going to get a proper meal for a while, and that it would be best to maybe stuff his face when he could.

His senses didn't always make coherent sense, but he wasn't going to question something that seemed so innocuous.

"You probably want to consider getting some more proper rest tonight, though."

Now that was a laugh, coming from a guy who was practically a career insomniac, these days.