DORM LOGS: Now with EVENTS!

[raw_angel_power]

Who: All of Smash.
What: Dorm log! January edition.
Where: Student and Teacher dorms, and quite possibly beyond campus.
When: Approximately the latter half of January to the earliest of Februaries (15th - 5th)
Warnings: YOU KNOW YOURSELVES

We all know our characters experience downtime after classes and their busy schedules, and this is a good venue for those kinds of miscellaneous dorm-shenanigans to take place. Not only does it give your characters the easy chance to meet new people in a laid-back environment, but it's a good mechanism for strengthening CR. It's easy!

Feel free to begin in any way you please! Plan with (a) fellow player(s) if you'd like! Or, set up a thread and wait for characters to bite! Just add a thread with the room number (and date/time, if it matters) and the characters that reside there (just for reference!). You do not have to use one character's thread as a dual-purpose for both characters if you do not want to. Doesn't have to be a dorm room, either, if you have something else in mind. It could be the common room or the student science lab or wherever.

BUT WAIT!!!!!!

This time, we're shaking things up. On certain days, there will be an event going on that might help if you can't think of a good scenario to kick off a thread with. Here is the list!*

1/18: Hypno's Naptime. Much like the anime episode of the same name, there are mysterious sleep waves pulsing through town. No one is sure where they're coming from- it could be a rowdy Hypno that took over a broadcasting station one day, or maybe it's the local Disco Drowzee club that opened up just recently and their collective moves are enough to make you snooze. Well, these sleep waves might make you catch onto some unexpected z's, but more likely they can give you strange effects. Don't limit it to thinking you're a Pokemon, either. They can trick you into believing you're something else entirely, or just give you the urge to slip on a chicken costume and table dance in front of a crowd without finding it socially inappropriate. Just. WEIRD STUFF, MAN. Anything is possible.
1/19 - 1/25: Nancy's going on vacation. That's right, you sorry saps aren't gonna know what to do with yourselves now that no one's cooking for you. There was gonna be a substitute lunch bear/lady/alien space creature, but for whatever reason, they never showed up. So now, everyone must FEND FOR THEMSELVES. How will you fare if you don't even know how to flip a spatula?
1/25 - 1/27: Ice Cream Blizzard. Oh, you poor, starving Smashers. Not only are you bereft of nutrition, but it's cold and snowing and you can barely get out of the building without freezing solid! You might just perish, but wait- if you step outside and try to catch snowflakes with your tongue, you might just realize that it's... snowing ICE CREAM?!
1/29-1/31: Goomba Infestation. Everything is Goombas for 2 days in the boys dorms. Bowser is dicking around with "Itchymarbles" again, and it just spills out across the entire dorms. This prank has the unfortunate side effect of, well, affecting everyone on campus, and not just Scratchy McMarbles, so you might wanna be careful opening that fridge, since the wrong kinds of mushrooms might start pouring out. Jumping on them might work, but it's gonna take a lot of hopscotch to decimate an entire roomful!

This is a bit of an experiment, so... we'll see what comes of this.

*Note: These were determined by rng. Any other suggestions will be recycled for next time if the event aspect is successful.

Also, if you want easy access to the dorm living arrangements, here is the link.

Comments

[punchthedoritos]

"Ohhh. Sure. Yeah." Sonny replied, not at all knowing how it went. But understanding enough of what he said to see why the guy might want to wear a big robot suit.

"I'm Red's Snorlax! If you don't know, Snorlaxes are a kind of Pokémon. Kind of like a giant bear. Red and Me and our Team were Pokémon league Champions for a while! But then we went on a big journey to beat more Pokémon Gyms. Then, we went and trained on Mt. silver, which is a REALLY tall and difficult mountain to climb. And then we all came to school!"

[grimeofancientmariner]

Ah, yes. Pokemon leagues and Snorlaxes. Of course!

Delta had absolutely no idea what the man (bear thing? Werewolf?) was talking about.

"You, ah, don't look like a bear. That related to this 'Pokémon' thing?"

He hadn't heard of a Mt. Silver, either, but at least mountains were something he knew of. Delta thought of the pictures he'd seen of Everest, always accompanied by one propaganda message or another.

Huh. A champion, mountain climber, AND chef... this man was a lot more than he seemed. The Big Daddy let out a small grumble, looking at Sonny in a new light.

[punchtheflute]

"Yeah!" Sonny replied, carefully measuring some sugar into the bowl. "Pokémon are a special kind of creature. There's over seven hundred different species of Pokémon and we live in all kinds of places! Snorlaxes like me love to live in the mountains and we eat a lot. A Lot. In my regular form, I can eat over 900lbs of food in a single day!"

He grinned toothily at the Big Daddy.

"So, that's why I spend more time at school in my Human form. Because it's cheaper. I only eat maybe 20 or 30lbs this way."

[grimeofancientmariner]

Delta nodded. Saving money by not being massive wildlife made sense, at least financially.

The Pokémon bit, not so much. He could easily imagine shapeshifting into different creatures, what with plasmids having decades to develop. But thinking they were a special, separate species... kid's off his rocker. Kind, talented, and probably accomplished, but crazy nonetheless.

"Smart. Not many mountains around here, though. You come to train even more?"

[punchtheflute]

Excuse me, sir, that is Arceuses honest truth.

"Yeah! I want to train to be a stronger fighter. But also, I want to learn how to do other, more different things. Being a Pokémon is great and important? But now that I can turn into a Human guy, there's a lot of things I want to do. Like play Ukulele. And write books for kids. And... well. Bake!"

He started to combine the dry ingredients with some milk and eggs that he'd totally prepared while they were talking.

"You can't bake when you're seven feet tall and weigh over a thousand pounds and have claws instead of fingers."

[grimeofancientmariner]

Yeah. Must be great being human. Delta turned around and cleared a space on another counter and placed his shotgun on it. He started cleaning the weapon with Incinerate! and one of the towels around the kitchen.

"You've got one down, then. How's the writing and strumming coming?"

So... if he's here to learn, then the boy must be a student. If he's a student, then the school must teach those things. Combat, writing, and music... that's an odd selection, especially to someone who was only familiar with schools that taught engineering or business.

[punchtheflute]

Sonny seemed completely fine with Delta performing shotgun maintenance on the counter as he started measuring in vanilla essence.

"I haven't tried writing yet. But My Ukulele is coming along OK! I get lessons in the city, because they don't have Ukulele class at school. I'm not really very good yet, but I practice a lot so I'll get better!"

He seemed pretty optimistic about that as he grabbed the baking trays and started ladling batter into the little cups.

"What about you? Do you like it at the school? Is your class fun?"

[grimeofancientmariner]

Practice makes perfect. Instant Prodigy also makes perfect, but Delta wasn't about to recommend a gene tonic to someone who's already convinced they're some kind of strange bear species.

"It's better than anywhere else I been. All I gotta worry about is kids drowning, which hasn't happened yet. Plenty of free time, open workshop... fun, yeah."

Nothing was too special about the class itself, but the autoshop had plenty of tools and metal and Falcon tolerated Delta and it was nice. Most importantly, nobody had shot at him in a month. That made this month the best one in almost 11 years. He flicked away another spot of dust with renewed vigor.

[punchtheflute]

"Better than anywhere else? Wow!" Sonny replied. "You must really like it here! Well, that's great, you know? I really like it here too. I think it's a really special place."

He got to eat so many different things and meet so many great new people. He liked it a lot. Though, the daycare in Goldenrod was still his favorite spot.

"Good luck with the whole no kids drowning thing, too!"

Said about as cheerfully as he had said anything else. Strange guy.

[grimeofancientmariner]

Not wanting kids to drown wasn't strange at all! In fact, it was pretty much expected of such a stand-up guy like... like...

Delta realized that he hadn't caught the name of his pastry-preparing, mountain climbing, worldly warrior comrade. He could always just go with 'Snorlax,' but encouraging delusion tends to end with straitjackets at best and gunshots at worst.

He reassembled his shotgun, putting it back in one of the many loops of rope attached around the diving suit and turning to the other man.

"Thanks. Say, don't think I, ah, got your name."

[punchtheflute]

"Oops!" Sonny replied, covering his hand with his mouth and flushing a bit. "Gee, I'm sorry! That's probably kind of rude of me, huh?" he said, sounding about as sheepish as sheepish got. Where were his manners?

"My name is Sonny Moe Snorlax." he said, extending a hand to the other guy. "And I am very pleased to make your acquaintance!"

[grimeofancientmariner]

Manners? Back in Delta's day, they didn't have manners, they had class. Well, Delta didn't, they did, whoever they were. Even in Sonny's day, the Big Daddy still lacks both of those qualities.

"I'm Delta."

Hopefully, an offering of a strong handshake will appease Sonny.

[punchtheflute]

Firm handshakes make everything better. He shook Delta's hand firmly in return.

"Well, the cakes are going to take about twenty minutes to cook once I get the oven preheated, and then about ten minutes to cool before we can put on the frosting."

[grimeofancientmariner]

Time? Ohoho, maybe they spent time waiting for things to cook while climbing mountains, but under the sea, they had Incinerate!

Delta stepped over to the oven and opened it just wide enough to fit a hand inside. He snapped his fingers and fire burst through the inside of the appliance, appearing and disappearing within a second. Cooking sure was easy!

Well, except for the actual cooking part. Delta looked over at Sonny for guidance.

"It's hot. You just throw it in there and let it sit?"

[punchtheflute]

Oh wow! It was like he could use his hands to make a Flamethrower or Flame Burst attack!

"Yeah!" Sonny said, sliding the tray into the oven carefully and switching the dial to 375 degrees. "Hopefully your fire won't be too hot in there, because that would burn them a little. I don't mind that, myself, but you might."

He took off his oven mitts and stretched a little. "And yep! we just wait for twenty minutes. We'll keep an eye on them through the glass." he said, pointing at the oven's window.

[grimeofancientmariner]

Burnt cake? Hah, maybe Smash they burnt things, but where Delta was from... wait, no, there was burnt stuff in Rapture. A lot of it. It was pretty unpleasant, honestly.

He could probably stand to wait twenty minutes. No harm would come to the cake under Delta's watch, temperature-based or otherwise. Following Sonny's finger, he began keeping a close eye on the inside of the oven.

"Anything we can do to speed it up?"

[punchtheflute]

"Not really! With baking, you just have to wait. There's a really special kind of thing that happens when you bake dough and that takes time."

Because cook it too fast and the dough would stay raw inside and whatever you were trying to make would be flat and wet and probably burned on the outside. No good!

"But twenty minutes isn't very long. You're lucky I'm not baking a chicken! That takes foreeeeeeeever."

[grimeofancientmariner]

It made sense, in theory. Delta was well aware of the properties of different types of heating in various environments, and the consequences of materials in each of them. Except most of the time, the material was a person or valuable cargo, and there was an element of suspense. With Sonny's baking expertise, the cake didn't seem to have the possibility of fatal immolation.

"If you say so. There a limit to what you can make? Or can you just, you know."

The Big Daddy swept his arm in a wide arc in the universal sign for everything. Can you cook the world, Sonny? Can you be Rapture's next top chef?

[punchtheflute]

Sonny would love to just roll the world up in tempura batter and deep fry it.

"There's a limit! I need to have a recipe. I'm not good enough yet to make up my own recipes. But I'm learning!"

[grimeofancientmariner]

Learning was good. Learning through trial and error was better.

"Gotta think outside the box, Sonny. That's real schooling. Say we added, ah..." Delta reached into an unassuming cabinet and grabbed a plastic container of cumin, whatever that was.

"Ever try making a cake with this?"

[punchtheflute]

Sonny looked at the container and laughed a little.

"No! That's cumin! That's for making chili and curry, not cakes!"

Man, Delta! You were a riot!

[grimeofancientmariner]

Oh. So Sonny already knew what it was. Come to think of it, the man probably knew the contents of every damn container in the whole kitchen. But... there was still a chance that chili or curry were things that went with cake, right? Curry and cake even started with the same sound, for crying out loud!

"So you've never tried. What about a curry cake? Don't know til you have some."

And man, they had a stocked kitchen right here! What better way to turn ignorance into knowledge, and also not look like an idiot in front of a student?

[punchtheflute]

"A curry cake...?"

He thought on this for a moment.

"...you know what? If you made sure not to use much salt and you used a lot of spices and kept the rest of the batter really simple? Like if you were making a plain yellow cake? That might be pretty OK!"

He was already thinking of the spices you used alongside cumin for the few curries he knew how to make. cardamom, mustard seed. He could add some sweeter ones like cloves and ground star anise.

"Let's do it."

[grimeofancientmariner]

Yes, less salt and more spices. That's definitely how curry works probably. Like... yellow spice, or something.

Well, no use goofing off. Delta might as well learn a thing or two himself. He reached into a few cabinets, shuffling around until he found a suitable mixing bowl and placing the cumin on the counter next to it.

"All right. What's going in this thing? Cumin, and, ah, flour, and...?"

[punchtheflute]

"We'll need flour, sugar, some other spices... why don't you get the flour and sugar and I'll go and raid the spice rack?"

Hey, this was going to be pretty fun! And potentially groundbreaking! He'd never heard of a curry cake before! Maybe if it was really good, they could get their own cooking show or something!