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

[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!

[grimeofancientmariner]

Cooking with Sonny and Daddy. Delta could see it now. This cake was going to be incredible.

Why, he had even gathered the flour and sugar without getting lost in any cupboards. That was a good omen. He poured a little flour into the bowl. And then a little more. Cakes had a lot of this stuff, right? And a lot of sugar, too. He added some of that too.

"How much you think is enough? Got maybe... three handfuls each."

[punchtheflute]

"Each? Hmm..."

Sonny stopped grabbing little boxes of spice and went over to examine Delta's work.

"Wwwwweell... we need about 3 cups of flour and two cups of sugar. Your hand looks about the right size to make a cup, so, this cake is going to be extra sweet!" Which he had no problem with, actually. "Let's see. We're also going to need a stick of butter and three eggs! Can you put those into a different bowl for me?"

[grimeofancientmariner]

Of course Delta's hand was the right size to make a cup. Cupping your hand was something most people could do, regardless of size.

"Yeah."

He manhandled a stick of butter out of its wrapper and into a separate bowl. As for eggs... eggs... he didn't see anything expressly white and round. There was a carton of milk, a bunch of plastic containers, some cardboard box, and a selection of jars with different stuff in them. But nothing that was really eggy.

"You, ah, got any kinda special eggs here? Or they the normal kind and someone took them all?"

[punchtheflute]

"Hmmm. Really? No eggs?"

Sonny looked in the fridge and moved a few things around. Dang - he must have already used the last of them making snickerdoodles.

"That's a problem. But not a really tough one to solve! My brother Vinnie is a vegan and so I've learned that a lot of recipes that need eggs? You could substitute soft tofu."

He dug around in the back of the fridge and pulled out a plastic container filled to the brim with ishy-squishy white gunk.

"We just need to use a blender to make it smooth!"

[grimeofancientmariner]

Delta didn't know what tofu was. But it didn't look especially like food. Maybe it'll look less like sea slug larvae when it was smooth?

He reached down his side and slipped an arm into the drill harness, giving it an experimental turn after weeks of disuse.

"Got that covered. Throw it in." He proffered the bowl with butter in it to Sonny.

Blenders are all fine and good, but sometimes you just have to try adventure-cooking. It's a surefire time saver!

It wasn't like Delta was looking for an excuse to drill something. Nope. Not at all.

[punchtheflute]

"Hmmm. Let's make sure that your horn drill attachment is clean first." Sonny said, his face a little concerned. "We should scrub it down with hot soapy water like we would do to an egg beater or something."

[grimeofancientmariner]

That made sense. There really wasn't much difference between a drill and an egg beater anyway - they both turned things into much smaller bits of things.

Delta put the bowl on the counter and rested his drill in the nearest sink, using his other hand to lower it gingerly inside.

"Gimme some water and soap?" He tilted his helmet towards the faucet.

[punchtheflute]

"Sure, OK!"

Sonny turned on the tap, making sure the water wasn't too hot or too cold. Hey, so what if it was a cold unfeeling mechanical attachment? He should treat it with the same kindness he'd treat anyone else's... limbs.

He squirted a little soap into the water and grabbed a dish cloth for Delta too, while he was at it.

[grimeofancientmariner]

The sensation of warm, soapy water surrounding Delta's cold unfeeling mechanical attachment was probably very nice. The impersonal metal was surely enjoying itself and thanking Sonny for the consideration.

The Big Daddy just gave his cooking compatriot another tip of his helmet and started heating up the water with his other hand. A comfortable boil should get it fully clean, right? Right.

"You sure that stuff is really cake material? Don't look very, ah, dessert worthy."

[punchtheflute]

"You mean the soft tofu? I think it will work OK. I'm not really sure about curry cake in general so I might as well try two things I'm unsure about at the same time, right?"

No, Sonny. That's terrible.

"....that water isn't too hot is it?"

[grimeofancientmariner]

The curry cake was sure to succeed - it was Delta's idea, after all, and those always work sometimes, no matter what curry may turn out to actually be.

But the tofu... if the resident cooking expert was unsure, that was not a good sign. His previous advice about learning new things seemed a little more trite with each glance he took at the bowl of white goop.

"'S fine. Let's get this over with."

Delta lifts his arm out of the sink, rotating the drill slowly at first but speeding up as he drags a towel down the ridges.

"How mucha this are we using?"

[punchtheflute]

Sonny did a little mental math and figured it out.

"One big egg is about two ounces. So, we'll need six ounces of soft tofu. Let me get a measuring cup."

He bustled off to find a plastic measuring cup and pulled one out of a cupboard fairly quickly. "So, about three quarters of a cup should work!"