hashtag_chocobro | Room 303; Wednesday [06/12].

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Room 303; Wednesday [06/12].

Though he still felt like it was some sort of miracle that he'd decided to stay, Prompto had not just hitched a portal right over to Insomnia the moment he got back from his food philosophy class on Monday, even though he'd been tempted. He really, really didn't like what the island was doing this week; the whole being-under-water-in-a-dome thing would have been bad enough all on it's own --it didn't help that he kept thinking of that force-field that had gone up with all the vampires, either -- but the fact that it was leaking? That it was clearly not maybe the most structurally sound? Terrifying. Like, at least with Insomnia's barrier, you barely noticed it. And it was, you know, underneath sky and not an entire ocean that would crush them all in probably two seconds after the first really big crack. Just thinking about it made it hard for Prompto to breathe...

...and then there were those...those...things, attacking people at every turn, all of those nightmares he'd been having about himself, come to life, lurching for him...

....fuuuuuck thaaaaaat. But running away to Insomnia was...just that. Running away. Like a coward. And Prompto didn't want to be a coward. And something deep, deep, deep inside of him told him that being a coward, especially in the face of all his friends here was far worse than being crushed to death under a sudden rush of water, of suddenly losing air because there just wasn't enough of it anymore, of being ripped apart of sliced to ribbons by something that could have been, would have been, should have been human.

If he was staying, though, there was no way he was leaving his room, unless he absolutely had to, or unless he was going to classes. He was definitely not venturing into town, and that included for the weekly activity (though he kind of wish he knew it was going to be just at the auditorium and not the community center or something). He was still on the fence about work tomorrow, though, biting his lip, eying his phone a little, debating on whether or not to just text Zack and tell him 'sorry man, i can't come in today, but i'm sure sidon could come in for me?'. He liked to think Zack would understand, but the idea that Zack might think he was a coward....was just too much.

So he debated a little while longer before sighing, not sending anything yet, and picked up his video game controller again to just...lose himself somewhere that wasn't here, as if that would be enough to just make him forget.

And you know what? Sometimes...it kinda was...

....just like when he was a kid and all he wanted was for the whole world to just...go away.

[[ door is closed, but the post is open if anyone wants to swing by! ]]

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"Promptooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Guess who that was, Prompto, and you had one guess.

And if you needed that guess, like, Nina would have no words.

"Can you, like, open the door???????????????? My hands are full!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Nina was also pretty sure he wouldn't want her to kick it in. So.

Well, it sure as hell wasn't Noctis, at any rate.

And, yes, not kicking in the door would be preferred. He needed that door this week.

Prompto almost flunched a little at that sound coming through his door right now, and then outright winced in guilt for that reaction, especially since he should have figured he couldn't just hide out in his roomm, avoiding pretty much everyone except Yang for too long. He paused the game and closed his eyes for a moment, taking in a few deep breaths to get control over himself, and tried to not think about the reasons why he was hiding out in the first place. A few deep breaths, and he tried a small smile so that it could make its way into his voice as he called out, "Yeah, hold on, give me a minute!", already planning to say that he was naked or something if she complained about having wait. Deep breath in....deep breath out. Turn the smile up a few more watts, laugh a little bit, really get it going like everything was fine, just fine, oh gods, so help him if she actually wanted to go and do something...

He shook his head, that thought almost derailing all of his progress before he made himself chuckle a little again and figured he was good enough to hop over the side of his chair and bounce over to the door, flinging it open and calling out, "Niiiiiiinnnnaaaaaa~~! Full of what, praytell?"

Edited 2019-06-12 22:13 (UTC)

"Stuff!!!!!!!!!!" she said happily, around the rather large box she held in her arms. "So much stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

And, sure, okay, she could have gone through the stuff on her own, but Prompto hadn't been at the activity and this was totally her way of checking up on him without, like, being super obvious.

"That is a lot of stuff!" Prompto remarked, based on the merits of the sheer size of the box alone, laughing a little (geez, dude, don't overdo it or anything, though!), and he stepped back into the room, holding open the door and gesturing her in. "What kind of stuff is it?"

And then he thought better of it a second later, realizing maybe he should offer to help with that stuff. "Here," he said, holding out his arms. "I can get it. Is it heavy?"

Maybe he should have asked that part first.

Her laugh was a lot more honest, though Nina hadn't noticed yet that he was trying to be cheerful, at that.

"It's heavy, it's heavy!!!!!!!!!!!!" And she was stronger than she looked. "If you could just, like, help balance it through the door that'd be great??????????????"

"Got it!" said Prompto, swooping in to grab at least his side of the box, giving it a little lift to test just how heavy it really was (not that he didn't know Nina was stronger than she looked, but more for the fact that Nina was also even more dramatic than she was strong) and try to guess what might be inside based on that alone.

He...had no idea, though, no matter how heavy it may have been, and he carefully started backing up back into the room, looking over his shoulder to try to avoid any controllers or spare parts that might have been strewn over the floor in his disorganized attempts to distract himself.

It was also at that moment that he was thinking he should have maybe taken a second before answering the door to toss some of his dirty clothes that had just sort of been lazy thrown aside into a neater pile, or cleaned up some of those empty Cup Noodle containers around his computer and gaming chair...

...whoops?

Whatever. It's not like he was expecting company, after all. Or trying to impress her. If anything, it would be kind of nice for her to be a little less impressed, anyway, especially since he kept telling her he was pretty much trash, but noooooo...

Ugh. He was way too deep into his own head right now...

It really, really was heavy. She hadn't been joking about that. It was, like, easy more than what they weighed put together. Easy.

Even if, yes, she was still more dramatic than anything else.

(She was still grateful his room was so close to the stairs. Getting it up a floor had... not been the greatest thing ever.)

Most of Nina's concentration was on the box, moving it, and also not crushing Prompto with it (she was trusting he'd take care of the not-crushing-his-things with it bit) but with the part of her that always, always was watching, she noticed the mess.

"Annnnnnnnd are we good to put it down????????????" Nina asked, once they got that far into his room.

"Aaaannnd...." said Prompto, taking a second to kick some rando spring-loaded mechanism he had been trying to see about hooking up to some projectile weapon-thingy yesterday out of the way, grunting a little from the effort of managing both that and the box, "we're clear. Down she goes!"

And not a moment too soon, either. His arms were a point of pride for him, no doubt, but still! "Damn, Nina, what'd you bring up here, all the weights in the gym? If I do a couple more lifts with this box, I'll be able to skip arm day for the rest of the week."

Just like he'd been skipping out on it for the week so far! All of his usual workouts and training, actually.

And he definitely hadn't been out jogging.

Nina hadn't been out jogging either, but she had been out every day this week, exploring, and generally having a pretty good time as she did so. That wasn't going to stop her from collapsing against the box, as soon as they set it down, in dramatic exhaustion though.

Which wasn't entirely faked, but that just made it more fun.

Sweeping the room with a glance, she grinned up at him.

"Like, if you want to, be my guest?????????????????" she offered. "Work those arms!!!!!!!!!!!!! It kind of looks like you've been hiding from the week in here, after all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Nina was really, really proud of the absolute herculean effort it took to say that without any sort of judgement at all in her voice.

See, the thing was, even with the most herculean effort possible, something like that would always have at least a little bit of a barb to it when someone was already riddled with guilt about the whole thing. But at least that herculean effort allowed for that little fire of distress spreading across Prompto's chest to feel entirely internal.

And he was really, really proud of the absolute behemoth of effort it took to just push that clenching burn away with a lopsided grin at pretty much the perfect angle.

"Nah, I'm good," he said. "I'd rather just see what's inside."

His curiousity really was gaining a lot of traction here, making the eager glint in his eyes even a genuine one.

"Maybe I should just keep you in suspense!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she teased, even as she shifted, getting up onto her knees, the better to open the box. "Leave you wondering for ages and ages and ages!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Nina would not do that. For one thing, she'd die of her own anticipation. D-I-E.

"But, like, that'd be no fun, right??????????????? Ready to see what's in here??????????"

Prompto probably wouldn't put it past Nina to try, and he had to laugh, genuinely, too, at the thought of her bringing up that heavy-ass box just to taunt him with never knowing what's inside., and that thought just made him feel a little blip of happiness, even if just for that moment of being glad that she actually did bother to bring up that heavy-ass box to him.

Even if she planned to just torture him with it.

"Yes," he said, laughing again, and kneeling down on the other side to get closer to seeing what it was and maybe helping a little, too...or so he was in a good position to open it himself if she refused. "One second longer, and I'll probably die from old age for waiting so long!"

"One second longer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??? That's not time enough to even, like, really get into this box!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Nina scoffed, laughing, as she looked at him. "Maybe I should wait???????????????? See your tragic demise over my box of stuff?????????????"

It was tempting, it really was. So tempting.

But Nina, see, knew what was in the box. And that was way more fun. At least, she hoped so, but it was rather too late to dither properly over it now that she was here, with it all, and so was he.

"Unfortunately, your tragic doom over my mystery takes second fiddle," she said, faux-solemnly. "Also unfortunately is that the first few things in this box are not the thing that matters in this box!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Well, there were two things, but one he wasn't getting before the other.

And, without further ado, Nina was opening up that box. It had just been folded shut, the tape lines showing at one point it had been taped closed, but that Nina had broken into it beforehand. On top was the moogle-doll he'd given her, wrapped around another box, medium sized, though flattish. Nina scooped that out, scattering packing peanuts and assorted snacks everywhere.

What? Everyone knew feeding teenage boys, especially in an apocalypse was almost as important as feeding teenage girls. Even though the Cup Noodles suggested she ought to be giving him vegetables instead, chips, cookies, and things like that were definitely lighter than canned veggies.

As Nina hugged her doll and set it and the pointedly nondescript box it was wrapped around (protecting it) aside, Nina grinned, sitting back.

"Now," she proclaimed, "you can find it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The really heavy thing. The important, ridiculous thing.

Nina was really, really proud of herself for scoring this thing.

It was still in it's box, in her bigger box, and there was no way Prompto was getting it out of her box without destroying said box.

Packing peanuts and snacks were going to be everywhere.

But she'd gotten her hands on something magnificent.

They were going to need a bigger air pump for this.

Edited 2019-06-12 23:55 (UTC)

Prompto had to grin a little at the reappearance for the moogle doll, though he was confused about what it was even doing in the box and was almost worried it was being returned because she didn't like it or something, but that hug sort of chased that thought away.

"Oh, sure," he said, picking up a packing peanut and flinging it at her, which didn't work very well, because, you know, packing peanuts, not exactly aerodynamic, "just make my room a mess, why don't you."

But he considered the box-inside-the-box, taunting him among a sea peanuts and snacks. Considered the snacks for a second. Nope, still not that hungry. The Cup Noodles had really only been insurance if Yang got his case for not eating anything, but there were bigger fish to fry right now. Box-shaped fish. He tried pulling the box out, to no avail, because there was no good way to grip it and, you know, heavy, and he frowned down at it for a second.

"Hold on," he said, pushing himself up, dashing over to his desk, pulling open a drawer and shifting through a lot of little tools and pieces of metal and wires until he found what he was looking for, brandishing the box cutter in victory.

"Ah-ha!" he declared. "At last! The legendary ultimate weapon to finally defeat this boxy beast!"

Still, at least he had all the snacks now.

"No!!!!!!!!!!! You couldn't be that cruel!!!!!!!!!!!!!! To defeat a box?!?!?!??!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Nina, laughing, was going to scramble a bit away from it, the better for him to defeat the box. She dragged her doll and the other box along with her, lobbing a few packing peanuts his way (they did not reach him, at all) as she did.

"I can't watch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" But she was, definitely, watching through her fingers there and still giggling.

"Don't worry," Prompto grinned. "I'll be careful. It's a mercy killing, really."

And he was going to be careful. So, so, soooooo careful, sloooooowly cutting along the edges of the box and then maybe a little slooooower, maybe just to see if he could go slow enough to break level of patience...

If he hadn't been welding a weapon, Nina would have lunged at him for that. Tackle-tickles would clearly have been the best way to deal with that, right?

As it was...

"Oh my goooooooooossssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, why are you like this???????????????????" she said, eager and jittery and he was doing it on purpose, the jerk! Jerk! "Promptooooooooooooo!"

"Hey," Prompto said, pausing enough to shake his box cutter pointedly a little, "don't even pretend like you don't already know that I am a completely insufferable jerk, Nina. You're smart enough to know better. But, okay, okay. Seriously, now."

Which meant he made quick work out of removing the top of the box, pulling it away with the proper fanfare (of course!) and then going to have a look at the treasure inside.

"...what?" He blinked, poked at it, tried to pull it out a little bit for a better look, but it was super well packed. "What is...Nina. Nina! NIII-NA."

Prompto dropped his hands, leaning forward with his elbows on the edge of the box, and leveled a look at her.

"Is this...."

Dramatic pause, while managing to hold a serious face for a second longer.

"....an inflatable??!!??!!"

Nina's shocked, shocked and scandalized, clutching of her moogle-doll to her chest did absolutely nothing to disguise her glee.

"Would I do such a thing?!?!?!??!?!?!??!!"

Yes, yes she would. And she had.

"Well," said Prompto, poking at that plastic bundle inside, "someone did, though who even knows why anyone would ever do such a thing!

"What even is it? This thing must be huge!"

And it was absolutely amazing. He didn't even know what it was yet! But he knew it was amazing!

"There should, like, be a picture in there of what it looks like inflated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Nina said, having to put her doll now to peer into the box and see if she could spot it. "It was there earlier, when I checked to make sure this was what I thought it was!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

It was so, so amazing.

"What you," asked Prompto, looking up for a moment with a conspicious lift of his brow, "who had absolutely nothing to do with it, thought it was, hmmmm?"

Grinning, though, he took a closer look and found the paper, pulling it out.

"Ah-ha!" he said, brandishing it as proudly as he had the box cutter. "I've found it! I've--OH.EM.GEE."

Yup. It was that moment that he turned the paper to face him so he could see it for himself.

"TWO Anakins?!?"

"Ohmygod.

"We...we're...we're gonna need a bigger pump."

And then he just started laughing, vaguely wondering how many detentions they could manage to get over this one.

Just hopefully...not this week.

"House of Anakins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Because, obviously, the one ANAKIN they had already wasn't enough! No, they needed more!

"And we are, like, totally going to need a bigger pump!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Nina laughed. "And, like, I wasn't even looking for something like this???????????????? But when the chance came up................"

"Yeah, no," said Prompto with emphatic agreement, "you can't come across something like this and just pass it up. This is amazing, Nina. How are we going to come up with something to truly let this live up to all of its amazing potential? This is beyond buses now, Nina..."

...

"Do you think it would fit in his office?"

"In his office?????????????????"

Nina blinked. She hadn't, like, thought of that mostly because--

"Maybe," she said slowly, "and, like, I guess we could test it out in Grumpy Bus Driver's office first, to see how it looks????????????????? Like, we don't want to crush the Anakins????????????????"

Or the slide.

Definitely not the slide.

"Hmmm," Prompto tilted his head thoughtfully, examining hte paper a little more closely. "Blowing it up in Bus Driver's office and then having to deflat it again would take a while; who's got time for that? I'm sure this thing has the dimensions somewhere, then all we'd have to do is just sneak in and get measurements of Skywalker's office, and Vette could probably do that blindfolded. And then we'll know. But what else could we do with it? Get it at the top of the school with a big old banner? What were you thinking?"

"It's true that, like, we should probably ask Vette to get the measurements of Bus Dean's office at some point anyway, but weeeeeeeeeeell," Nina said, drawing herself up all solemn dignity and twitching lips since, no, it was impossible to be entirely serious about this. "I'd been thinking, like, it's a house, and people are supposed to live in houses, and then that, like, people have houses for their cars..........."

Those were garages, Nina.

"Like........... safety first, you know??????????????"

"....I'm sure this thing is big," Prompto ventured, "but I don't think it's big enough to fit a bus..."

But he paused, his eyes shifting to the side a little.

"I mean, unless we had, like, a shrink ray or something, and we could strink the bus and then put the bus in the house and then make the bus bigger?"

That seemed a lot of work, though. Especially considering that they'd have to make a shrink ray.

...he'd definitely try, of course, but it was a bit of a jump from a homebrew chocobo Danger Shop program.

Although...if it was big enough to fit a bus inside, that was pretty epic.

"I mean, I don't know how big it is exactly," she admitted, since Nina had let the guy selling it get as far as 'unicorn bouncy castle', clarified that it was, yes, a thing people could go into--and the guy had confirmed it was big enough for adults to jump around in--before she'd decided she'd needed it. Desperately.

"Maaaaaaaybe it could fit the bus," she mused. "Or maybe there's some spell to make it bigger................."

At least, like, they didn't have to use it immediately. The bouncy castle would not go bad.

"Or," said the tech guy not about to just hand it all over to magic, although that did sound easier, "an expando ray
"

It could totally be a thing!

"But," he concluded, "that's a much better idea. I mean, who wants a smaller bus? And, conversely, who wouldn't want a bigger bouncy house?"

Bus Dean probably wouldn't want a bigger bouncy house, but that wasn't his problem... yet.

Yet.

"Bigger, in this case, would definitely be more fun," she agreed, tilting her head thoughtfully as she picked up a packing peanut. "I bet, like, if we worked on it together we could figure out an expando ray that was both magic and tech.................????????????????"

"Best of both worlds, then, huh?" Prompto said with a faint grin. "And then maybe some third thing that Vette can add to it. Make it a real full-fledge Drama Diamond amalgamation!"

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Room 303; Wednesday [06/12].

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What's in the box is NFB, please~

Re: What's in the box is NFB, please~

Re: What's in the box is NFB, please~

Re: What's in the box is NFB, please~

Re: What's in the box is NFB, please~

Re: What's in the box is NFB, please~

Re: What's in the box is NFB, please~

Re: What's in the box is NFB, please~

Re: What's in the box is NFB, please~

Re: What's in the box is NFB, please~

Re: What's in the box is NFB, please~

Re: What's in the box is NFB, please~

Re: What's in the box is NFB, please~

Re: What's in the box is NFB, please~

Re: What's in the box is NFB, please~

Re: What's in the box is NFB, please~

Re: What's in the box is NFB, please~

Re: What's in the box is NFB, please~

Re: What's in the box is NFB, please~

Re: What's in the box is NFB, please~