2024-12-15 - Misery Loves Company

[TXT to Will] River: So here's a hypothetical for you

[TXT to Will] River: Say you took someone out a few nights ago, and there may or may not have been kissing. And then a few days later that someone had a fever and it felt like they'd swallowed MULTIPLE knives.

[TXT to Will] River: Probably that someone just has what you have and are not actually dying, right?

[TXT to River] Will: oh

[TXT to River] Will: oh no

[TXT to River] Will: i'm sorry but it's fatal and i'm also dead

[TXT to River] Will: do you need anything, i can bring soup and it's fine because

[TXT to River] Will: i'm already dead

[TXT to Will] River: Welp. I guess I've died how I've lived

[TXT to Will] River: Very hot, and very uncomfortable

[TXT to Will] River: And soup would be amazing but I'm trying not to leave my room so that I don't infect the masses.

[TXT to Will] River: Sully and I share a bathroom but I'm not licking the faucet so hopefully that's alright?

[TXT to River] Will: Um

[TXT to River] Will: You can just come here and be sick

[TXT to River] Will: sure maybe it's not the apartment visit either of us dreamed of lol

[TXT to River] Will: But we can be infectious together

[TXT to Will] River: That's weirdly very appealing

[TXT to Will] River: I'll be right over. Just dont judge how gross I am right now.

[TXT to River] Will: i wouldn't anyway but also lol i won't be judging ANYONE

With the assumption that River knocks and Will answers~ he'll be swinging the door open a few minutes later to usher in his fellow plague victim. His hair has a real mussed up look to it and he's wearing pajamas, warm soft plaid bottoms and a cotton t-shirt. "Come in, come in," he tells her, offering a smile.

He looks pale, and tired and there's a creaky quality to his voice. His hands are also loaded with those spots from the other night, but they're not fresh anymore. They look dried up. Which is better but also still gross??

The rabbits are on the loose. The pair of them don't even blink when the door opens and another person comes in.

River does indeed show up, knocking a few minutes later. She's alive but also clearly not at her best: pale, hair still damp from when she ran out of energy part-way through washing it. She's in a pair of blue sweatpants and a purple hoodie, and she's wearing a blanket draped around her neck like an oversized scarf. Not for the fashion; she's in that in-between place of sometimes feeling too hot, sometimes feeling way too cold. Her hands actually look okay for the most part, with just a few fresh spots, but only because her feet (which are currently covered with socks, no shoes for the trek across the hallway) got the worst of it.

Despite all of this, she still has a smile for Will. "Thanks. I was feeling guilty even sharing air space with Ty and Sully, although they both seem healthy."

She heads right in, looking for a place to SIT, only to stop with a gasp. "Oh the BUNNIES!"

She had forgotten about the bunnies.

"I saw Ty when I was at the doctor and he touched my pen and I'm scared for him. They told me it was coxsackie." Even the word sounds ominous and menacing. Will puts his hands on her shoulders and ushers her to one of the couches, it's comfy and squishy and probably terrible for your back if you fall asleep on it overnight. The bunnies aren't remotely concerned by the people walking around, actually start to get in the way.

"Ladies, please," Will croaks out as he slooooooowly and geeeently nudges one away with his foot. "They're trying to kill me. They know they're the ones set to inherit my fortune. Ungrateful children."

Once she's situated on the couch, he'll shuffle over to the kitchenette area. His apartment looks much like her apartment in all the standards way, not surprising. There are less plants and honestly less everything that would make it look homey? These three guys are not interior decorators.

River's odds of falling asleep in random places are high right now, so if the worst happens, hopefully Will wakes her up before her back takes the worst of this couch. But, then again, she has a few months before she'll hit thirty. Maybe her back will be fine!

"They're so cuuuuuute," River quietly squees as she's guided couchwards. Once there, she's quick to collapse down onto it. Her blanket gets wrapped more fully around her body, and she pulls up her feet to make a proper River-burrito. "Ty seems like the sort of suffer in silence, even if he did get sick. But maybe he's just one of those people that takes zinc." River of course not being one of those people.

The bunnies are distracting enough that she barely takes in the apartment. It's so similar to hers, it's easy to let it all fall into the background. Leaning over so that she can peer off the side of the couch at bunnies, she stage-whispers, "Please don't kill Will! I think I like him!"

Will looks over his shoulder, "Don't be fooled, they're dastardly." The bunnies continue to hop aimlessly around, occasionally wandering over to their food and water, or just finding a warm place to cuddle down. They peer at River curiously, little nose wiggling.

In the kitchenette, Will is making hot water happen in an electric kettle. He leans against the counter and watches as River gets settled in. "Hm, I don't know. He's really cheerful and emotive, so I feel like he would let people know he was in agony. Then again-- maybe it's all a front! He's secretly a plotter. Why do people take zinc?"

Clearly Will is not one of those people either.

"But just look at them!" It's too late. River is in love. Their noses alone are sending her, and she slowly collapses sideways onto the couch so that she can just lay there and watch the bunnies. They could take a nap and she'd be mesmerized.

"Have you gotten him to talk about personal stuff though? I tried asking him about past relationships once and he changed the subject. He's at least not an entirely open book." Why do people take zinc? "Um. I don't actually know. It's an immunity thing?" She has no idea.

Will glances to the bunnies as he turns to take the now hot water off and pour it into some mugs he was preparing before she came over. "You two should be ashamed of yourselves. She's a nice girl and you're hoodwinking her." The bunnies ignore him.

He does a bit more puttering around over there, and from aaall the way across the apartment, she can probably hear his thoughtful huh. "I haven't, but we haven't really spent a lot of time together? We text here and there and he gave me soup. I hung out with him and Lennox once."

It's not long after that he comes out with a tray and two hot cups, along with a little squeeze bottle of honey. It's tea, and if she checks out the tag, it's the tea Will swears up and down is just diluted apple cider water or whatever his claim was. "Is zinc a metal?" Clearly River is the zinc expert now.

"Aw, that's nice," River says, of Ty bringing over soup. "He's really nice. He and Sully and I all started working here at around the same time, and I met them both at Lucky's one night and decided we should all live together." Yes, River just decided this - and apparently got her way. "I'd maybe been drinking, a bit."

She pushes herself back into a sitting position, once Will comes over with the tray. It's a bit of an effort, but she manages. And she doesn't even need to look at the tag; she catches the smell of the tea and starts to smile all over again. "You just happened to have apple spice not-tea laying around?" she asks, but from the way she looks at him, she does not believe his possession of this particular tea is accidental.

Then again, you can get it in the staff room. It's not like it's hard to find.

"Um. Yea it's definitely a metal." Is it? She's guessing. "Like iron." Don't go to her for medical advice.

"Oh? It must have been a real connection to want to room up with two strangers after one night." Will settles down on the couch with a groan, still feeling the abundant aches and pains. The tray is placed down and he hands her over a cup, producing a half smile as he glances up and away. "I... didn't," he admits.

One of the bunnies comes over and starts to chew on the edge of Will's sock, he absent mindedly shoos her away. "I might have hit the staff room after that one night? And raided all of their packets. So that I would have them." Even if he doesn't really drink them. Never mind that he just made two of them, he's sick. He needs this diluted apple remedy.

"Huh." Will is just going to think about zinc for a minute.

"Yea, what can I say? I think I just make really great first impressions...?" River manages to make it that far with a dry delivery before huffing out a laugh--and then wincing, lifting a hand to her throat. "Ow."

Seriously this is THE WORST DISEASE.

But she takes the offered cup with a "thanks," blowing across the top and watching Will with a small smile. "You're very sweet," she murmurs, taking a tiny sip of her tea. "Even if you've killed me."

She untangles herself from her blanket just enough that she can drape part of it over Will's legs. Sharing. "I'm also sorry we're not going to make that movie. Although we could watch one now, if that's not super lame."

"You do. I've never been more attracted to a litterbug now than in my whole life." Will also starts to laugh, which yes, causes pain. He groans and whines, throwing his head back. "I'm dying." He's not. He probably feels better today than the other days.

He gets it together enough to sit up and find his own cup, adding way too much honey and then sipping it. The heat is at least soothing, and the overabundance of honey helps a bit. Will winces when she says that, not the 'you're very sweet' part, the other part. The part about killing her. That gets the wince. He inches closer on the couch, inch, inch, inch, until he's pretty close and a blanket is being draped over part of his leg. "I am... so, so, so, so sorry I got you sick." He really is, look at this big sad brown eyes. "I promise I had no idea I was sick until the end."

"Um, no. That's an amazing idea-- what do you want to watch? That's uh-- assuming I can find the remote." Will starts patting down the couch they're own, feeling it up and shoving his hands down into the cushions. "I've got this."

Does he?

That litterbug comment gets another laugh, followed by another wince. "Nooooo don't be funny!" she groans. "You can only talk to me about, um. Taxes. And similarly unfunny topics. Our impending deaths, for instance."

His being closer helps with the blanket situation because she definitely hasn't given him half of it. Not on purpose, she's just sitting on part of it and hasn't made enough effort to move. And that apology gets another smile. "That's alright. I had fun. Maybe it'll be worth dying over." Although that might be a stretch, this is pretty bad. The Apple tea is helping, though.

"Let's watch... hmm. Not a comedy." Because nobody is allowed to be funny. She makes a lackluster effort to pat around her part of the couch for any remotes. "Maybe something Christmasy? What's on Netflix?"

It doesn't matter because she's going to fall asleep during it.

"We can talk about zinc instead?" Will offers. And the man who's not supposed to be funny right now is-- sure making an effort to be funny. He finally digs up the remote from within the cushions of the couch, and points it at the tv. As it turns on, he shifts position a bit and starts trying to tug her closer.

Tug via pulling on the blanket, on her arm, her FOOT. Somewhere so he can sling an arm around her and they can lay here and die together.

"Um, how about the movie where the lady starts dating a hot snowman? I heard that's a thing. I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to be a comedy."

SUPPOSED TO BE.

River makes a sound as if she's choking, but she's really just trying not to laugh. "No, no, zinc is also too funny," she chides. "Better stick to the taxes."

Then-- "Hey!" More laughter, more wincing as she is tugged around. She ends up getting up just enough to untangle herself from the blanket, then it's her turn to push him back so that she can return to the couch, curled against him, blanket draped more evenly across them both. She rests a hand on his arm, holding it where it is. This is her arm now.

"Oh I've wanted to watch that one! I have a lot of questions about snowman dick. Like: did someone sculpt one for this guy?"

Good luck to them not laughing.

With the tv now actually on, Will pulls up Netflix and navigates the search function. It's terrible, they're all terrible. On every single platform. But he does it, he finds Hot Frosty and hits play.

Will laughs, which triggers coughing, which triggers him scolding River. "Hey! If I'm not allowed to make jokes about zinc, you can't talk about hot snowman dick." Despite his admonishment he curls into River just a little more and finds a way to rest his head more or less even with hers.

This is extremely cozy and will lead to laughing and passing out and waking up with neck pain.

River makes snowman dick jokes anyway. At least until she inevitably falls asleep, curled up on the couch with Will.