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 Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2016 11:52 pm
The Halloween party had been much more fun than Sylvia had anticipated, if for no other reason than the opportunity to people-watch and get to know the few friends she’d made better. She had lost some people along the way, then rejoined them, then lost them again… Still, it was fun. Brian had been one of those who had slipped in and out of her proximity a few times, adorably flush and loose and friendly by the end of the night.
Which is why Sylvia was headed to the Zeus dorms with a massive Gatorade and some ibuprofen and Tylenol. She hadn’t known Brian for long, but even she could tell he’d stayed pleasantly buzzed, at the very least, all evening, and she wasn’t sure how much water he’d had in between cups of punch. It couldn’t hurt, at least, to bring supplies in case he needed them.
That wasn’t exactly the only reason she was visiting, though. She wasn’t close enough for him to have said anything, and she couldn’t be sure, but… she remembered the comment about possibly dressing as a cop being ‘sore’. And they’d talked in the Bayou about how unlikely it was for cops to get much time off, especially if it was spontaneous; she was fairly sure their stint in the humid south didn’t help his situation after the emergency in the Alps. He didn’t need to say anything for her to worry. She’d at least make herself available in case he did have something to say, and needed someone to say it to. Even then, maybe he wasn’t comfortable with her yet…
Either way, she’d made her decision, and she wandered the halls searching for him. She only felt a little uncomfortable, as this was her first time visiting a dorm other than Aphrodite’s. Then again, it somehow seemed fitting that she start with Zeus… A smile naturally crossed her lips when she found his room, and she shifted to tuck the Gatorade in her left elbow and the painkillers in her left hand before raising the right to knock. Hopefully he wouldn’t mind the intrusion.[ 353 words ]
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Posted: Sat Dec 03, 2016 6:06 pm
Brian hadn't been expecting any company, but that didn't mean it wasn't welcome. Misha had a habit of showing up whenever she liked, and Beth knew where he lived now. He had been wrapped in a blanket watching a movie on his laptop when the knock sounded at the door. He paused the movie.
"One second!" Gah. Volume. He shook his head to clear it, regretted that too, and went to his dresser to pull on a shirt over his sweatpants. He looked like s**t, but he doubted anyone would care. If he was being called on a mission he'd just change again, but he sorely hoped not. He wasn't feeling the best today.
When he opened the door, he was relatively stoic-faced, maybe even frowning a bit. His brows furrowed but raised, and then he recognized Sylvia. He smiled softly and laughed a bit. Oh boy.
"I wasn't expecting you! Do you want to come in?" Politeness said he had to ask, but he was pretty sure that Sylvia wouldn't want in his room. He had yet to realize what was in her hands.
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Posted: Sat Dec 03, 2016 10:02 pm
Sylvia chuckled a bit when she heard him yell for some time to compose himself. She wondered just how much that entailed. At least he didn’t have any messy hair to worry about, and it didn’t sound as if she had woken him, thank goodness. She shifted the items she was holding again so that pain meds were in her right hand and the Gatorade was in her left and she was looking down at her feet while she stretched them a bit, glad for the warmth of a building after walking over in ballet flats.
She was still looking down when he opened the door, but she looked up quickly. He looked a bit miserable, if she was honest, and she bit at her growing smile as she greeted him with what she hoped was an appropriately tame voice. “Good morning, sunshine.”
He finally seemed to realize who was at his door and she grimaced a bit, though she continued to now wear a grin. “I’m sorry, am I a bad surprise?” She lifted the Gatorade and the pain pills, “I come bearing gifts? It’s up to you if I come in or not, I just… well, thought you might like some hydration after last night.” She shrugged, “I didn’t know what your favorite flavor might be, though, so I got Glacier Freeze figuring it was the least intense and possibly offensive of the supposed top three flavors in the world…” An amused and somewhat sheepish smile still played on her lips as she waited to see if she was welcome or needed to retreat.[ 266; 619 total ]
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Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2016 4:58 pm
"No, no! Don't say that," he said, and he laughed slightly. He hadn't intended to make Sylvia feel unwelcome. He wasn't even sure what he had done to make her ask like that. Hopefully it wasn't anything too offensive. "Oh?"
He looked down at her hands and then laughed. The tips of his ears flushed red. Yes, he'd had a rather eventful and enjoyable night, but he'd been pretty drunk. Now it seemed that he was pretty blatant about it, but of course he was. There was a reason he didn't often drink.
"Top three flavors?" he asked, "Glacier's good." He stepped back from the door and gestured for Sylvia to come in. His military and police unit photos sat on one wall, as well as a bifold on his desk and a family portrait on the wall. Sylvia was now only the second person to ever see them. His room was usually immaculate, but hangovers meant more mess. His costume was still in a heap on the floor and his blankets were pretty clearly recently evacuated. "Sorry for the mess. How are you today?"
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Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2016 1:10 am
“Okay.” Sylvia gave him a warm smile, glad he was fine with her visit. He hadn’t really made her feel unwelcome, it was more that the look of dishevelment about him made it seem like any visitor could be more troublesome than not at the moment. Still, Brian was a trooper, if not a lovely person in general, so perhaps she should have anticipated that he would at least entertain her visit for a few moments.
Sylvia confirmed with a nod, “I googled, since I wasn’t sure what you liked; I figured you would at least like one of the top three. But I didn’t want to buy huge bottles of each of them, so I just went with what seemed like the least offensive option.” She had meandered in while explaining, but turned now to offer a smile and hold the bottle out for him, “I’m glad this’ll work.” Her eyes began to wander even before the weight had left her hand. She looked over the photos of Brian’s military unit, and his police unit, but eventually she landed on the family photo and lingered.
Until Brian mentioned the mess. Then she finally turned back and glanced around the room, scoffing a bit. “Oh, honey, if you think this is a mess…” Then again, she realized, he had been in the military, an organization not exactly known for its leniency. She smiled and gave a sigh, “I’m doing okay so far, especially given what a late night it was.” She was normally a bit of an early bird, which ruined most attempts at sleeping in. Luckily she didn’t feel too sourly about it today. She scrunched her nose and gave a sort of sorry smile to Brian, “And how are you feeling?” She lifted and held out the two options for pain management as well, in case he’d forgotten they were available.[ 313; 932 total ]
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Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2016 11:40 am
Brian accepted the Gatorade easily and twisted off the cap. He sighed and took a swig. Yeah, not bad. He was definitely amused that she had felt the need to Google Gatorade for him, though. She certainly cared, didn't she? That was good. He rather enjoyed her company.
"Ah, yeah. I slept in pretty bad." He hadn't even gone for a run, but he wasn't sure that his head would let him at this point. It was aching like it was never going to stop. "Mm. A lil' but like somebody hit me in the head with a baseball bat. --Thank you." He accepted the Ibuprofin and took two with a long swig of Gatorade. He'd been tempted to grab three, but who knew if it'd even work? He couldn't remember the last time he had been this hung-over.
He had seen her glancing at his photos and smiled. Yeah, she cared. She was curious, if nothing else. "You have any siblings?"
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Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2016 1:20 am
A sympathetic smile crossed her lips, brows knit in concern. “Oh no, I’m sorry to hear that.” Despite that, her expression was amused enough that it was clear she wasn’t entirely surprised to hear it; well, obviously, since she’d come with hangover helpers. Nonetheless, she never liked to hear that someone was in pain. “Well, hopefully these will help.” Though he’d taken the ibuprofen, she made a point of setting the Tylenol on his desk. “Quick tip, you can alternate ibuprofen and Tylenol every two hours rather than having to wait the typical four if you just use one of them.” She gave him a wink.
Aah, so he’d caught her interest in the photos. Sylvia gave a somewhat sheepish smile, then gave a long shrug, “If we’re just counting blood? No, no siblings; just me. But I do have a best friend who might as well be a sister.” And she meant it. It wasn’t the typical close friendship, and she wasn’t big on claiming any close friend as practically family. “I guess I can’t be sure it’s the same, since I am an only child, but it counts to me.” She gave a sort of proud smile before glancing at the picture she’d noticed.
“Are you close with your family?” She hoped it wasn’t too personal to start asking about this stuff. After all, she’d come to try and help with a hangover – she certainly didn’t want to add to his headache. Still, he’d brought it up, and she wasn’t prone to quelling her curiosity (not unless she was told to, at least).[ 265; 1,197 total ]
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Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2016 4:36 pm
Brian waved a dismissive hand. "I'll be fine."
He knew first aid and temporary trauma care, and he knew how to wrap a wound and buddy-carry, but damned if he knew that you could alternate Tylenol and ibuprofen. That was probably something his father knew, but why would he ask? Brian wasn't even sure when the last time he'd been that drunk was. "Huh!" he said, as he peered at the bottles. "Thanks for that. I see you seem to have more self-control, hm? I'll get them back to you tomorrow." He was teasing at his own expense and smiled at Sylvia.
"No, no, that totally counts," Brian agreed, "Blood isn't necessary for family. You know, you can sit, if you want..." He gestured to the room in general, but really all there was was the desk chair and the bed. She was welcome to either. "Oh! Yeah, family's a big thing. I've got military family and cop family and family-family though. Two little sisters, blood-wise." He gestured to the photo. His father had a much less severe bone structure, and Brian's sisters seemed to share a lot of his features, although their hair was similar texture to their mothers. Brian seemed to have gotten his genes from his mother's side, considering their lips.
"How about you? Blood-family, I mean, though you can tell me about your bestie too if you'd like. I mean, if you want to. You can say 'no.'"
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Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2016 9:11 pm
Sylvia chuckled, “Yeah, I don’t indulge very often.” She pointed at the bottles as he took them, “Also, you can actually keep those if you want, just in case. I have more at home.” Not that she thought he would need them for this purpose very often, or even very soon. She did, in fact, have huge bottles at home for any aching emergency, parsing them out in smaller travel sizes that were in her purse. If he did return the smaller bottles, though, she’d probably continue loaning them out to people who needed them.
A gentle smile crossed her lips, glad he agreed that blood wasn’t a necessary requirement for sibling-tight relationships. “Okay, thanks.” She made her way over and plopped on the end of Brian’s bed, slipping her feet out of her ballet flats and crossing her legs in a pretzel. She grinned as he mentioned his various families. She was not really surprised to hear that he’d grown up with two sisters, it seemed to suit somehow. She glanced over the photo again at his gesture, though unable to study it the way she would have if she were still standing. “You all look alike.” She could at least tell that much. It was interesting to see where people got their features from, and which they shared with siblings; sometimes they looked entirely different, but Brian’s mother clearly had some dominating genes.
She nodded at his question, leaning back and propping herself with her arms. “I’m close with my parents, definitely. We’ve been pretty tightly knit my whole lives, actually.” Which she had come to believe was a decent rarity in the world. She’d had some power struggles with her parents, but for the most part they had always trusted her and trusted their parenting, which made for more discussions and less fighting. Sylvia chuckled, “And still very close with Bellami, yes. Ever since we met in the first grade and bonded over our mutual love for a light teal-colored crayon.” She grinned at the memory and glanced aside, eyes going a bit out of focus against the far wall. Her smile faded just a little, “We got to be really close in middle school, though. She stayed at my house a lot – at first just for lots of sleepovers or whatever, but eventually she stayed with us for a few months between seventh and eighth grade.” Sylvia glanced back up at Brian, one side of her mouth twitching back, “Her parents were going through a pretty ugly divorce and I think they knew she needed a more stable environment. Luckily, they’d become friends with my parents by then, and we were able to offer her half of my room for a while.” Sylvia straightened again as she spoke, folding her hands over her legs, one finger running along the bottom seam of her leggings.[ 478; 1,675 total ]
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Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2016 10:55 am
Brian laughed slightly at the teal crayon story. It was sweet and innocent, and that sort of thing seemed to be more lacking nowadays. It was nicer to think about a couple of first-grade kids becoming friends, especially when the other option was big metal birds or terrified people being turned into animals.
He moved to sit in the desk chair after turning it to face Sylvia. He didn't want to make her feel awkward if he sat beside her, although he wasn't sure she'd care. Still, it was better safe than sorry.
Then it struck him that maybe he had asked the wrong question. Sylvia's smile had faded. She looked a bit distant. His brow furrowed slightly and he gave an almost inaudible huff of air.
"Well, I'm glad you were able to help her," he said, pulling his smile back on, "I'd definitely say she's family then, hm?"
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Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2016 12:48 am
Whoops, had she gone too far? Brought up something a bit too heavy? Well, she hadn’t meant to. But it was the only way to really explain how close they were, and why. She scrunched her nose for a moment, then an oddly apologetic smile spreading beneath as she answered, “Definitely. So far as we’re concerned, at least.”
She gave an audible sigh before trying to shift back to hopefully happier things. “So, tell me about your sisters. What are they like?” She leaned back again, making herself comfortable, and looked between the rest of the space on the bed and Brian. “By the way, I don’t mean to keep this whole bed to myself. Not that you have to move over here either, but y’know, feel free to join me if it would be more comfortable.” She was on the edge of the bed, but she could scoot more if needed. She wouldn’t blame him if he wanted to kick her off the bed and have a lie down, either, depending on how bad his headache was. She couldn’t help but think the bed might be more comfortable – soft things were good for hangovers – but it was ultimately up to Brian. Maybe the chair was better for now.[ 209; 1,884 total ]
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Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2016 10:18 am
Oops. He'd reacted strangely, hadn't he? Sylvia looked upset with herself for a moment, but luckily it passed. He really had to get better at this casual conversation thing. Maybe it was the headache.
"That picture's sort of old," he admitted. It was a bit of a chore to get his father to agree to get any sort of photos taken. "That's Christine," he said, pointing to the blonde of the two sisters, "She's nineteen now. Just started school. Wants to be a nurse. Still sort of in that rebellious teen stage, though. More girly. And that's Allie. She's 23, had just graduated when we got this taken. She's an administrative professional and she's looking at a promotion, which is pretty great. She's sort of a badass." He was smiling fondly.
"They're good kids," he said to Sylvia with a nod. "I'm the oldest by five years."His face said he couldn't possibly be nearly thirty, but hey, maybe he'd be able to appreciate it when he was in his fifties.
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Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 10:29 pm
Sylvia leaned forward, clearly interested as Brian gave the basic run-down of his sisters. Sylvia grinned a bit at the mention of Christine wanting to be a nurse. “Ooh, a nurse, huh? That can be an intense job.” Her eyes flickered over to Brian, a bit of a twinkle in them, “I guess wanting to help people runs in the family.” She couldn’t help but giggle a bit when he described Allie as a ‘badass’. She wouldn’t have expected such a descriptor for an administrative professional, at least not just based on that information, but she would expect it of both of Brian’s sisters. “Seems that runs in the family, too.”
She wouldn’t have expected the age difference either, unless she thought about it. With four years between Christine and Allie, it made sense there was another few between Allie and Brian. Brian certainly didn’t look almost thirty – though, on the same end, Sylvia had been told that she also looked younger than she was. Sylvia had heard mixed advice on how to plan out children, too – some saying to clump them together so they could relate more, while other disagreed and said that spacing them out gave them the maturity levels to deal with younger siblings. She settled back a little bit as a curious smile curled her lips. “So, did you always enjoy having sisters?” Brian seemed like an easy candidate for being a brother, but who was to say that was always the case?[ 247; 2,131 total ]
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Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2016 2:23 pm
"My dad's an RN," Brian said with a nod and a chuckle, "He's a big scary veteran but he's the origin of all of the 'taking care of people' stuff." He wasn't even sure he had ever told Misha what his father did. Huh. He didn't discuss family much with anyone, as if his life at the Prytaneum was a different life altogether. It wasn't, not really, even if it had to be secretive. He was the same man here that he was at home.
At the "badass" reprise, Brian laughed and nodded. "Damn straight."
He eyed the portrait again then and nodded. With the Gatorade bottle now between his knees, he leaned over the cap with both hands on it.
"Um! I was excited about Allie until she was actually born," he said, "At least that's what they tell me. I was only five. She got fun when she started talking and being able to play and things. Little babies just weren't my thing, and I'm sure there was a bit of one-sided sibling rivalry. I was more excited for Christine. I was probably more involved with her in the beginning," Brian paused. He was smiling as he spoke. "It got better as they got older. Mom was the peace-keeper, but they fought with each other more than they fought with me. If you're asking if I ever scared their shitty boyfriends away, yes, absolutely."
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Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2016 7:12 pm
Sylvia gave a large smile, eyes going a bit wide, “Is that so?” She hummed with interest, “My mom’s an RN as well. Or, well, she was.” That, however, was another slightly heavy story. If Brian was okay with the potential of that, he could certainly ask, but she would leave that up to him. “I’m not surprised at all that it passed on, then.”
Sylvia uncrossed her legs and drew them up so that her chin could rest on one knee as she listened, wrapping her arms around her folded legs. Sibling relationships were always so interesting, always being so different. She could imagine a tiny Brian having no idea what to do with a newborn – very few five-year-olds felt natural with babies, she thought – though for some reason she imagined he would be very good with kids now.
She laughed at his ending statement, then gave a solid nod. “I’m glad to know that you’ve done your brotherly duty. I’m sure they appreciate it.” She sighed and shook her head, though an amused smile remained. “I could have used an older brother to tell me when I was dating an idiot and couldn’t see it.” She tilted her head, “Did they ever veto any of your girlfriends? I imagine sisters also chase off terrible matches, just perhaps in different ways…” For her only comparison, she, at least, had been blunt with Bellami several times about the less-than-fantastic men she had dated over the years. Bellami had done the same, though Sylvia was often stubborn and either didn’t listen, or just hadn’t told her everything Bellami would need to know to make a fair assessment…[ 276; 2,407 total ]
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