Sunshine and serpents.

[Kaiser Reed]

It was the weekend and Kaiser was trying not to succumb to the boredom. He had to do something, had to get out of his room. The kid rolled out of his bed and yawned. "Oh man..." He said rubbing his eyes. It had to be around noon, why was he still so tired? Was the boredom making him tired? Possibly.

The boy moved over to his mirror and looked at himself and frowned. Yikes. He should probably...make himself look a little better. Kaiser took the oversized sleep shirt off and threw it into his dirty clothes hamper. "Hrm..." He moved to his closet and pulled down one of his favorite shirts. It was bright yellow and had a picture of a fluffy kitten on it. The boy grinned as he looked back into the mirror. Kaiser quickly took off the pajama bottoms he was wearing and traded them out for a pair of black skinny jeans. Kai slipped on his shoes and started to walk out of his room before he stopped. "Right..." He murmured as he reached for his brush. The kid's hair was always all over the place and never liked to be tamed. He pulled the brush through his bright, blonde hair a few times before sighing and shaking his head. It was hopeless but hey, he tried.

Kaiser finally deemed himself worthy to leave his room, he opened the door and walked out. The boy hadn't met any of him roommates yet...they were probably busy with stuff. Understandable. This was his lucky day though, or not so lucky...who knew how this would go.

His blue eyes landed on another person in the dorms space. "Oh!" Kaiser exclaimed, not used to seeing anyone else. "Hey...uh...do you...er..." The boy cleared his throat as he looked at the other boy. "...live here too?"

[Erik Stewart]

Erik, by contrast, had worn the same sweater jacket for nearly a week now. He only had three. They weren’t filthy, but they all smelled like smoke, and they were faded with use and age. In the gray, frigid winter months Erik was robbed of energy. He had long since forsaken his appearance. He slept well into the afternoon hours during his off days and it had given him pink circles under his eyes, same as it would have if he lacked sleep; he did nothing with his hair but washed it occasionally, and kept it tied up behind his head, the stray strands sticking out near the front wherever they will. Right now he was slouched on the common room couch, slowly bringing up chips to eat from the bag on his lap.

Any one of Kaiser’s other roommates could have told him that Erik was better left alone, but neither of them were here – off visiting family for the holidays, probably. Tomer and Kunikpok were staples of Dorm 502, but their fourth roommate never seemed to stick around for long. He had barely even seen their newest one. In between his job cleaning up at the center and sporadic outings to town, Erik generally kept himself locked away in his room.

Luckily for Kaiser, Erik wasn’t feeling combative. These days he just felt drained. Kind of sleepy. He merely looked up when Kaiser walked in, and he probably would have left it at that if he hadn’t decided to talk to him.

Erik squinted at the kitten on his shirt.

“I’ve been here for five years,” he replied.

[Kaiser Reed]

Kaiser stared at the other boy for a moment, taking in his appearance. He was...not too colorful, that was apparent. Kaiser liked wearing colorful outfits, especially on cold, winter days. It reminded him that the sun would be coming back...some day. The yellow helped him with keeping his spirits up when the pale, gray days tried to bring them down.

"Five years?" He asked. "That's a pretty long time. I've been here for like...a week? Maybe? I dunno...something like that. I'm terrible with time." The boy said shrugging.

Right! Manners! Kaiser walked closer to his roommate and put out his hand. "It's nice to meet you, my name is Kaiser Reed."

[Erik Stewart]

“You don’t know?” he asked, voice flat.

Whatever. He wasn’t going to tell him any different. Erik stuffed another chip in his mouth and crunched, nearly missing Kaiser’s introductions until he stuck out his hand. Erik was polite enough to use the hand not covered in chip dust, at least.

“Kaiser?” he said. “Kinda sounds like somethin’ you’d name a dog.”