MHA Laundry Room, Saturday morning

[hasaknightjob]

Steven was a late sleeper when left to his own devices, which meant mornings were left to Marc if he wanted them.

It was Saturday so there wasn't much on the agenda. Marc had set up some shot glasses of rum on their apartment balcony to see if bribing squirrels really was a thing. Next was laundry where it was just as easy to wash both of their clothes at the same time as not.

Unfortunately it wasn't until he had everything in the machine that Marc realized he'd gotten detergent on his t-shirt. Oh well. He stripped it off and tossed it in with everything else.

He could run upstairs to get a replacement but on this island he didn't trust leaving the laundry alone for roving gangs of possums or whatever the hell to make off with it. So instead he took a seat and got out his phone to see what baseball games he could listen to while he waited.

[shameless excuse to use an icon is shameless. But very much open as well.]

Comments

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon was going about his self-mandated check of the premises, because damn it, if he was to be a landlord property manager, he was going to do it properly, when he walked into the laundry room to check nobody had been trying to feed coins to the machines again.

He was a while out from any statement, and a bit groggier than usual as a result, so it took him a second to notice the shirtlessness. He blinked. "Oh."

It also meant the Eye wasn't being as responsive as it was sometimes. "Steven, hello, I..." He nodded. "Hello."

[hasaknightjob]

Yeah, there was no reason not to nip this one in the bud.

"Marc, actually," he said.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"O-oh. I, um. I'm sorry." And confused. And then belatedly unconfused as the knowledge came to him.

He frowned in confusion. "But you have two bedrooms."

Because clearly that was the weirdest thing here.

[hasaknightjob]

Marc didn't have mind reading abilities so he similarly had no clue where the comment was coming from. "Yeah? What's the problem? We pay rent on time."

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Oh, no, I-I'm sorry!" Jon said. "I just, um. I'm confused as to why."

Spoken like a man who had literally lived in his damn office for about a year.

"But it's not a problem!" he assured Marc. "I was just...just curious, really."

[hasaknightjob]

Well the real answer was because Steven had a bug up his ass about Marc needing his own space for some reason. But Marc couldn't tell why Jon was suddenly giving a shit. "Why?"

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon flushed. "I'm sorry, I know it's probably none of my business. You can, you can do what you like, obviously. I'm sorry."

[notagoose]

Goose was in major need of doing some laundry since he hadn’t done any since he’d come back from assignment and he’d figured he should probably get on that before he got caught up trying to work on his communicator.

It had also been quite a few weeks in general since he’d last done any so he figured he should fix that sooner rather than later.

He hadn’t been expecting to run into anyone else though so he nodded in greeting when he spotted Marc.

“Morning,” he said.

[hasaknightjob]

This was... a new one to him. Also he was pretty sure to Steven as well because nothing was ringing any bells when he saw Goose.

"Morning," Marc replied. "Lemme know if you need me to move my shit."

He'd left the laundry basket and supplies on top of the machine he was using but still, no harm in the offer.

[notagoose]

“That’s okay,” Goose told him as he started to sort through the laundry pile, “I kind of forgot about laundry for a while and then got back from assignment so figured I should probably do something about that,” he admitted.

He tilted his head at Marc as he tried to place him, even though Goose had been here nearly a year and still hadn’t met all of his neighbours yet so it wasn’t that hard for him to not know someone.

“I’m Shane Gooseman,” he offered, “most people call me Goose,”

[hasaknightjob]

"Marc Spector," he replied. He frowned as the name sounded familiar. "Goose. You the one helping out with the Prompto thing?"

[notagoose]

Goose hadn’t been expecting the name recognition and blinked a little at that, “I am,” he told him, “Summer and I have been trying to figure out how to establish communications again with our universes,” he explained, “so far there hasn’t been much luck,” he admitted.

[hasaknightjob]

"I'm friends with Liz," Marc said, to explain how he knew. "Any luck with that? Getting through I mean."

[notagoose]

“Oh,” Goose nodded, understanding, “not really,” he admitted, “sometimes I’ll hear blips of conversations from them,” he paused, “my boyfriend has a communicator from my universe, it was how we were able to communicate originally when we lost contact the first time,” he explained, “and we thought there might have been something there with them asking for help from their Gods but nothing has really come from that,” he sighed, “I guess we just have to wait and see,”

Which was not something he was good at, at all.

[pocketpretzels]

Did Watts need to do laundry today? Absolutely.

Did Watts have any idea that his apartment building had an entire room dedicated to automatic machines that could do said laundry? Absolutely not.

However, in coming back to the building after his morning walk he did happen to overhear noises of an unfamiliar sort coming from one of the rooms in the lobby. Testing the door, he found it unlocked, and so naturally he poked his head in, only to see (what appeared to be) Steven- without a shirt.

"...Hm."

Use your words, Llewellyn, come on.

[hasaknightjob]

The thing about having close to a lifetime of experience with their whole deal was that, current teamwork or not, Marc had more practice taking or relinquishing the controls.

Or, as the case may be, mentally shoving a sleeping Steven to the forefront fast enough that it looked as though Steven had physically just startled awake as well.

Ignore the part where their eyes had been open the whole time. Details.

Steven looked around to try to orient himself. He spotted the machines first so said, puzzlement clear on his face, "Marc, why have you left me alone to do laundry?"

Not alone, Marc said, from the reflection on the glass front of one of the dryers. He jerked a thumb towards the door.

Which was when Steven spotted Watts.

There may have been a look of panic.

[pocketpretzels]

Yeah, Watts wasn't so distracted by the shirtlessness that he didn't notice the oddness of- whatever that was. Just saying.

"Good morning," he said, stepping fully inside the room. "Laundry, you say?"

[hasaknightjob]

"Yes?" Steven said, because he was getting a handle on that himself at the moment. He stood up and quickly checked if there were any spare shirts but the laundry basket was empty and there was as yet nothing in the dryer.

There was still Marc's reflection, though, to which Steven quietly hissed, "Marc Spector, you are the worst."

Thank me later, Marc said. And with that he was gone.

Right. Nothing to do but try to get through it. Steven turned around to face Watts and - arms very much crossed over his chest, thank you - attempted to act casual. "Morning?"

Steven was a very bad actor.

[pocketpretzels]

"Good morning." Watts, you already said that.

(Okay, so he was still somewhat distracted by the shirtlessness, and those arms.)

[hasaknightjob]

Well it wasn't as though Steven was overflowing with a selection of topics he could think of to talk about either.

"Er... things going well?" Steven tried.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon looked and felt rough(er than usual) today, but he still felt it his duty to try to welcome people.

"Good, um." He mentally checked the time. "Good morning, Mr. Watts."

[pocketpretzels]

“Is it?” Watts replied, because the other man did look as if he’d been through the wringer.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Erm...yes? I think." Jon checked his phone. "Yes." It was definitely morning.

He fidgeted awkwardly for a moment. "I hope you've been settling in well."

[pocketpretzels]

He’d been referring more than the ‘good’ than the ‘morning’ part of that greeting, given how you looked like something the cat had dragged in, Jon, but sure.

“Well enough. There’s a lot for me to catch up on, but I’ve been making steady progress at it.”

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Eh, Jon was used to it.

"If...if there's anything I can help with, please let me know," Jon said. "It, um. I imagine it's quite an adjustment for you."