Playing House

Who: Lina and open
When: 7AMish
Where: Kitchen

The heavy snow had persuaded Lina to forgo her outdoor morning run, and instead head down into the basement to use the treadmill. She liked running outside a lot more, but she couldn't deny that it was still a great step up from running anywhere at any time in Detroit. Since she didn't have the elements to contend with, she ran a little longer than she usually did. When she finally called it quits, all she had on her mind was food and a cup of coffee. Which probably explained why, after discovering the coffee wasn't where it had been the past ten days, she looked a little like she would have liked to punch somebody in the face. Goddammit, she had just gotten the hang of where everything was.

She headed into the massive pantry, and realized almost immediately that something was different. She wasn't really paying attention to what just yet, but it started to sink in right around the time she found six different brands of decaf, and a hell of a lot more caffeine-free varieties of tea than there had been yesterday. "Oh, oh, oh fuck to the no," she grunted, and then she really started digging around. Now that she was on alert, she realized one of the things that was very different about the pantry. There had always been a lot of soda in here. Towers of coke, mountain dew, and every other kind of pop known to man. Those were gone, too. Replaced with the decaffeinated variations, which she had always thought were kind of gross and pointless.

"This shit ain't cute," she mumbled, heading out of the pantry and basically slamming the door behind her. She hadn't meant to, but her morning coffee was being fucked with, and Lina wasn't the sort of person who responded well to any part of her morning rituals being borked. She headed to the fridge now, knowing just last night she'd seen a few of those bottled Starbucks drinks. They were gone now. In fact, the sight awaiting her in the fridge wasn't half as cheerful as it had been yesterday. It was all a lot less puddings and fruit juices, and a lot more veggies and old people food. "Oh, you dirty rotten motherfuckers..."

Who: Avery, Jessica, Madison and Miles
Where: the ballroom
When: just after eight

The last thing Avery wanted to do was go to the dinner that was being held in the ballroom tonight. There was the problem of food that he hadn't seen prepared, and the unpleasantness of having to be in a large group of people. He'd spent the day changing his mind about whether or not he was going to go. Why couldn't he just stay in his room or maybe hide out in the library, where he didn't have to make conversation? Sadly, he knew why. If he didn't attend, he might be struck with those random cold spells again. He didn't know how and he might never know, but he was convinced that those had somehow been controlled by the scientists. It was too convenient that he'd felt normal the very second he'd been around another person, and then when he'd been alone again, he'd been freezing cold once more.

Reluctantly, he got dressed in slacks, loafers and a green button-down shirt, the most formal outfit he had with him, and after brushing his teeth and combing his hair, he left his room to go downstairs. Lingering by the door, Avery saw that there were a few other people in the room. He'd hate to be the first one there. He went inside, about to sit down at an unobtrusive table in the corner when he realized there were place cards at each seat. Blushing at his near-gaffe, he crept along from table to table until he found his name. Before he sat down, he glanced at the other names of the people assigned to sit here. He'd met both Miles and Jessica and had liked them fine, so he felt at least marginally better as he took his seat.

The food actually smelled terrific, and he thought that maybe it'd be okay to eat. Probably a chef had prepared it, and someone like that would be more likely to be clean with their hands and the utensils they used than a random housemate. Avery decided he'd wait for others to get here, because he'd feel strange sitting at the table eating alone. Plus, there were ladies at his table, and he'd been taught that gentlemen should never start eating until after the ladies had.

Who: Cam and open
Where: Game Room B and possibly spilling elsewhere
When: 11:45 or so

( Okay, so it wasn't strictly a heinously late hour )

Who: Emily and Open to All
Where: the kitchen
When: early evening, around 5pm

( For Emily, the evening and dinnertime just couldn't come fast enough. )

Who: Delaney and Miles
Where: the billiards room
When: evening

( that wasn't supposed to happen )

Who: Miles and OPEN
When: Day 7; early evening
Where: Basement storage room

( He was happy to have the exercise area to himself, not feeling even one iota of loneliness despite keeping to himself since the first day he'd arrived. )

Who: Miles and Avery
Where: the living room
When: late evening

( It was late, and he thought that he might be less likely to run into anybody. )

Who: Chris and Miles
When: Early evening
Where: Game room B

( It didn't take long for Miles to note he had a room directly across from the library (a wonderful coincidence), but he didn't linger there long, compelled to map out his bearings. )