ROLEPLAY HQ - schools-in-for-fall

TW: alcohol, trauma, potentially sad themes, and dark humor

It was a crisp, breezy, casual September day. The college year would begin in two days, and Laurel couldn’t wait for the action to begin. It was his first year living in a dorm on the campus, and he was lucky to have gotten a good one. It was basically an apartment on campus, but it came with a caveat: he had to share it with someone else. It was fine by him, though; he was excited to try and make a new friend. He sat down on the couch, pulled out his laptop, and waited for his roommate to arrive. After about two hours of waiting, working, and doing various things to keep himself entertained, he heard a knock on the door to the dorm room. He shot up excitedly, running over and opening the door to finally greet his first-ever roommate. He opened the door quickly. "Uhh... hi! Are you also in this dorm?" @ivette

Tulisa has been excited to finally go to college. Finally, she is headed to her dream school and couldn't be more excited to start this next chapter of her life. She recently turned 18 about 6 months ago and she already has a few tattoos. The one on her chest peaks out above her breasts and then snakes its way between them to an intricate design below her navel. She has always adored and been exposed to body modifcations, her mom being a renowned tattoo artist has helped spark her love of art. Every since Tulisa has been able to hold a pencil in her little baby hands she’s been trying to draw like her mother. In her childhood she grew up around the hustle and bustle of a well know tattoo shop. As she got older her mother started to teach her, finally when she graduated she was able to go and get her licenses as a certified tattoo artist.

The crisp autumnal breeze shifted Tulisa’s royal purple hair, she took in her new home. The college where she would make all her dreams come true. As well as make her mother proud. After checking in and getting her room key, she heads up to her new room and roommate. Tulisa hasn’t ever had to live with anyone her age, being an only child to a single mother has that side effect. But besides any of that she’s really excited to get to try. She’d hope that who ever it was, the two of them would be good friends. Finally in front of the door to her new home for the next few years, Tulisa takes a deep calming breath and knocks on the door. The door opens to show a man in front of her, he is slightly taller than her so she turns her eyes to meet his. As they lock eyes Tulisa can’t help at smile at the gorgeous hue of the iris. “Yes i am in this dorm. I’m assuming we will be roommates as per you are already in the room.” Her signature contagious smile splits her face as she greets the young man. Extending her hand to him she speaks again, “My name is Tulisa or you can call me Tully. I don’t really mind. What’s your name?” Her tone i sweet and gentle in a way that is almost motherly.

15:31

@Never Online

"I'm Laurel. You can also call me Lou if you really want." He chuckled. He stood at just barely taller than her, his slender limbs just barely wider than hers. In fact, except for hair length and the obvious bust size, everything about it seemed to be just barely more than hers. He shook her hand, his amber-orange eyes looking directly at her own ones. "Nice tattoo, by the way! I would get one, but... too scared. Here, let me show you around!" He took her hand and led her inside, showing her the rooms: the bathroom, living room/kitchen(complete with a full-sized fridge, stove, and oven), and two bedrooms. "This bedroom's mine, and that bedroom's yours, but everything else is shared. What're you studying here, by the way?" His eyes looked at her eagerly, obviously aching to talk more. He either was obsessed with talking to people or just didn't do it often.

15:41

@ivette

As he makes a comment on her tattoo she can’t help but giggle at this man being scared of a little needle. Laurel seems very excited to talk and show Tulisa around. Not that she really minds. hes enduring in a way. Cute almost. She thinks to herself as he guides her around the room. Taking a note that the dorm is much bigger than she expected. The couch looks newer with its gray Swede and dark oak detailing. Finally enjoying the large kitchen, one of her side hobbies being baking. She loves to cook both food and sweets for her friends and family. This love of caring for the nutrition of others only further solidifies Tully’s role as the mom friend. After the tour Laurel turns to Tully and explains the two different rooms as well as asking her about her major here. “Awesome, I’m glad I get my own room. Being that I’ve never had a roomie other than my mother I wasn’t entirely sure. And I’m studding to become a tattoo artist. It kinda runs in the family for me. How about you? Why are you here?” @Never Online

Laurel chuckled as the microwave beeped loudly. He grabbed a paper towel to shield himself from the heat and took out two Hot Pockets, offering Tully one. "Oh, I'm just... I don't have a major. I can't decide on one. Too shit at everything, y'know?" He smiled and chuckled nervously, the dorm settling into awkward silence as he took a bite from the Hot Pocket. Laurel had grown up as a troublemaker. Not the rob-you-of-your-lunch-money type, but more of the ADHD-prankster-who's-always-bored type of troublemaker. He would constantly do stupid shit like putting salt in people's tea and coffee, making floors slippery, being mercilessly annoying towards everyone, and just generally being a nuisance. It wasn't often that he payed attention in school- hell, he couldn't even remember the last time he'd gotten above a C+- so it was a mystery as to how he was in college. "Yep... ahh, still lookin' for my major."

13:32

@ivette

Thinking the boys for giving her a hot pocket. Is when she realized she hadn’t eaten anything all day. And it was already past noon. She didn’t take any regard to it as it was something that was normal. the boy’s response to her question about his major made her giggle a little. It was funny to her how someone couldn’t have figured it out by now. But she also understood not understanding what to do with your life. As well as not being very good at anything. She failed a lot in school. The teachers always aggravated her so she didn’t try as hard as she should’ve. The only place she excelled was art. Hence why she was going to become a tattoo artist. To put her talent good use. “ well, you know it’s OK to not know your major. That’s why you’re here at college. It’s figure out what you wanna do in life. And I get what you mean, but not really being good at anything. The only thing I was never good at in school was art and so I’m going in the becoming a tattoo artist. And I’m sure there’s some skill you have.” @Never Online

"Pfft... well, the only things that I'm good at are pissing people off and being a punching bag. Too bad they don't have a boxing team!" He chuckled, the dorm once again going briefly silent from the awkward comment. "A-anyways, are you still hungry? Do you want anything more? I'm sure that we have some frozen stuff in the fridge... maybe some frozen waffles, or how about-" He kept going on, starting to ramble slightly. It was all too clear to her that he was both nervous and trying waaaay too hard to keep her around and interested. He didn't even seem to notice he was rambling, going on a tangent about what frozen fruit was the healthiest and why. @ivette

Tully send Sarah munching on her hot pocket. Happy to just listening to Laurel talk. He just rambles on and on and honestly she finds it cute. He asked her if she still hungry to which she nods. Her tummy grumbling in agreement. He continues to talk on and on about frozen fruit and frozen waffles. At this absurdity of frozen food, she couldn’t help but giggle. “ All right, friend, two things. When I’m in this house. Or dorm I guess. I’ll be cooking. No more of this frozen waffles. We can use frozen fruit. I don’t mind that. But I have brought several cooking supplies. As well as a grocery list. We need to go shopping so that we can stop this fridge with good stuff for me to cook and bake with. That’s one of my favorite hobbies to do. The second thing, you don’t have to try so hard to keep me around. I am enjoying just being here. To take a deep breath for me darling. Calm down and know that you don’t have to try so hard. Though I do like your rambling, it’s cute.” With the last sentence, she gives a little wink, and then gracefully walks over to her bags, taking them to her room. Leaving one or two behind. Filled with kitchen, stuff and other stuff for the dorm. As well as a very large box. That has TV written on it. @Never Online

He looked confused as she said that she'd be cooking, but nodded. After all, he'd only ever made something like Hot Pockets because he didn't trust himself to work a stove or oven, which was a concern he shared out loud. He blushed slightly and shut up when she called him 'darling', and blushed more when she'd winked and said his rambling was cute. He walked over to the TV and took it out of its box. "Woah... this thing's gonna have to... actually, where are we going to put this thing?" With his trench-coat-like jacket, unkempt hair, jeans, and sunglasses to hide his amber eyes, he looked very out-of-place... like he was trying to blend in, but was doing a horrible job. "So, uhh... you cook? How long have you been cooking?" He started to set the TV up on one of the counters in front of the couch. @ivette

As Tully sets down her bags in her room and returns to the living room to see Laurel struggling to ser up the TV I brought. A giggle bursts from her mouth as she watched him struggle. “ I’ve been cooking since I was a kid. I love to bake cook basically all things. I just have fun with all of it.” her voice even and calming. And she continues to watch him struggle to put up this massive TV. After she watches him struggle for a hot second, she walks over and help him, set it up. After they’ve set up the TV together Tully flops down on the couch. “Well that looks like a job. Well done. What do you think?” @Never Online

Laurel sat down heavily, missing the couch and sitting on the floor. “Why and how am I so out of shape… how is that enough to get me out of breath?” He just sat on the floor, breathing heavily as he started spacing out. He spaced out often… a bit too often. Whenever he did it, his eyes crossed slightly, making it both look like he was high and tired. It was his escape- well, one of his escapes from reality. He loved to do it whenever he was tired, relaxing, or stressed, but sometimes, he’d just slip into the state accidentally, like now. @ivette

As Laurel flops on the floor complaining about being out of shape, all Tully does is lay her head back on the couch so she is looking at the ceiling and tracing the patterns of the molding and lines. Relaxing in this new space seemed natural to her, it felt good to be here. To be pursuing her dream. Tulisa couldn’t wait to start her journey to her dream job to her future she’d always dreamed about. Several minutes pass by and Tully looses track of time as her mind wanders all around the areas of her imagination. After a long time she finally takes a big deep breath and sit up. “Hey you want some food?” @Never Online

Laurel, still spacing out, didn't respond to her question immediately. About five seconds after she asked him, he turned to her. "Huh? Oh, yeah... if you want to make something, the fridge might have stuff to make." Apparently, by 'stuff', Laurel had just meant some instant foods, a lot of different drinks, and a container of restaurant leftovers. He clearly either wasn't putting in the effort to make any foods for himself, or he didn't know how to, but it was a bit depressing either way. @ivette

Tully doesn’t even wait for him. She doesn’t need his consent to cook for them. She gets up and goes to the kitchen looking into this fridge and pantry to see that there is nothing really to cook with. Sighing, she goes into her box and opened it up to a bunch of spices and some non-perishables that she brought with her. “We can go grocery shopping tomorrow.” She said with turn it back to Laurel. She was bent over in the fridge. Looking to see if she can find any milk or anything. She starts to make macaroni and cheese, homemade. From the noodles and some milk she found, as well as some cheese she brought. She heats up the water on a stove in a pot that she brought as well. And puts a lid on it to have it boil faster. @Never Online

Laurel just sighed as she said this, getting up and grabbing water from the fridge. Opening the bottle and taking a sip, he turned on the TV just to check if it worked. It sparked to life, showing a setup screen, which he started following through with. From his motions to his mannerisms, from the look of his apartment to the way he talked, Tully could guess he wasn’t a loner by choice. And she’d be right. Laurel often tried to make friends, but he was too eccentric to do it. “I just want to say… if you ever feel the need or urge to move to a different dorm, don’t stop yourself. I’ll be fine on my own. I always have been. @ivette

As she is cooking she hears Laurel saying she can move dorms if she feels necessary. A little confused she speaks. “I mean ok. Thanks?” Shrugging off the odd comment she goes back to cooking the Mac and cheese. Thinking about all the times that she’s made this with her mom, the memories have always been fond. “How’s the tv going over there? Got it to work?” @Never Online

“Yeah… it’s coming along,” he confirmed, finalizing the setup as he stood. He smiled, using the window as a mirror to fix his hair. “Y’know… if you want to try and teach me to cook. I’d be willing to learn. Cooking’s always been something I respected, so…” He didn’t finish his sentence, instead grabbing a mop and filling a bucket with water. Judging by the near-spotless dorm, he was a bit of a neat freak. He didn’t come across as one, though.

10:50

@ivette