Your roommate is a little... //odd//, to say the least. You're not entirely sure what she majors in, though you can make vague guesses based on the stacks upon stacks of math and astrophysics books she has. She works long hours, often leaving the room before you get up in the morning and not returning until after you've gone to bed. (There are some days you wonder if you actually have a roommate at all.)
She also only wears frilly black dresses and always has a set of fake, fuzzy cat ears on her head. Yes, //odd// is the only good word you can come up with to describe her.
Then one day, something strange happens. You return to your bedroom after dinner to find her there. She's sitting at her desk, surrounded by open books and a flurry of laptop and tablet windows, and alternating between furious note-taking and pondersome chewing on her pencil.
You settle in and get comfortable for the night. It's bizarre, actually sharing your room for any amount of time with this near-stranger. The room is quiet; you would normally fill the silence with music, but you're concerned about bothering her.
You should say something. But what?
[["What are you working on?"]]
[["If you finish working, do you want to hang out?"]]
[["Why do you wear cat ears all of the time?"]]
[[ [Say nothing and choose not to engage with her.] ]]
She responds with a playful groan. "Midterms. I love my work and all, but papers are a you-know-what, am I right?"
You laugh. It's one reassuring sign that she's human. "Yeah, you're right. I hate writing papers. What's yours on?"
"Superpositioning, quantum probability, arguing M.W.I. versus Copenhagen, the basics." She chuckles. "I guess it's not that bad. My thesis is going to end up being a twenty-page report on using the quantum suicide theory and applying it to large-scale experimentation. THAT'S going to be a monster to write."
You blink a few times, not certain you understand all of the words that came out of her mouth.
[["Uhm... That's...nice."|Nice Entrance]]
[["You're weird."|Dubious Entrance]]
You swallow the impulse and say nothing. Maybe it's best you just leave her alone.
She continues working for several more minutes, then puts down her pencil and rolls back from her desk with a dramatic stretch and yawn. "Ugh. Papers are the worst, am I right?"
Still, you try to avoid her. She leans back on her office chair, rolling up to your desk, and puts a hand in front of you. "Hey, I know I'm not around most of the time, but you don't have to be shy around me." She smiles with a chuckle. "I know I look like a cat, but I don't bite, I promise."
"Sorry," you apologize under your breath. "Why are you gone all of the time, anyway?"
"Lab work," she says with a roll of her eyes. "Trust me, I'd much rather be hanging out in here with you playing video-games."
"Lab work for what?"
"Eh, mostly warping through multiverses, testing and formulating quantum theory, that kind of stuff." She slides back to her desk as you watch her, baffled by her words. "Beats doing equations on a whiteboard, right?"
[["Yeah, I guess so?"|Nice Entrance]]
[["Uh, no, actually, I think I'd rather have calculus."|Dubious Entrance]]
She looks up. For a second, you think you see her cat-ears twitching.
Then she smiles at you. "Thanks for the offer! Here's hoping I can take you up on it, but this paper looks like it's going to take me all night."
Then she stops and ponders for a second. And then she laughs. "Then again, I guess us hanging out is inevitable, isn't it?"
"How so?"
"That's how the many-worlds interpretation works. In one universe, the work ends up being too much and we //can't// hang out, but in another universe, I finish in time and we //can// hang out."
She rolls her eyes shortly after explaining it. "Sorry, I've got quantum theory on the brain. It's what I'm writing the paper on."
You pause for a moment, not certain you heard, much less understood, everything she said to you.
[["Oh, that sounds...interesting."|Nice Entrance]]
[["You're kidding, right?"|Dubious Entrance]]
She laughs, not looking up from her notes. "Because life is too short to be serious, and I have a soft spot for irony."
"Huh?"
She turns to glance at you, poking her notebooks with her pencil. "Quantum theory. You know, many-worlds interpretation? Copenhagan? Everett?" Seeing your puzzled face, she nudges her cat-ears with her pencil. "Schrodinger's cat."
That last one you recognize. Vaguely; you know it involves a German scientist putting a cat in a box with some poison to prove something about the universe, even if you don't understand the details. "So what, you spend most of your days being both alive and dead?"
"Of course I do. We all do."
[["That's a positive way of looking at it. I guess."|Nice Entrance]]
[["Okay, second question. Why are you weird?"|Dubious Entrance]]
She breaks into a pitchy, almost maniacal, laugh. "Oh, you're so cute!" she coos.
After she calms down from her laughing fit, she dismisses your words with her hand. "Thanks for trying to be nice, but I get it, it's hard for people to wrap their heads around sometimes."
Suddenly, she's struck with an idea. Her golden eyes light up and she darts towards her desk. From it, she grabs a single quarter, and then she points at you, rolling the quarter between her fingers like a nimble magician.
"Here. Let me show you."
[["Okay."]]
[["Uh...That's okay, I'll pass."]]
She chuckles under her breath. "Yeah, I get that a lot. It sounds weird, especially to people who have never heard of it before. You can probably see why I hang out with the nerds in Game Design, huh? No one understands the idea of infinite earths better than a comic book nerd."
You turn away, trying to avoid her eye and end the conversation.
Suddenly, she's struck with an idea. Her golden eyes light up and she darts towards her desk. From it, she grabs a single quarter, and then she points at you, rolling the quarter between her fingers like a nimble magician.
"Here. I'm not crazy, it's just science. Let me show you."
[["Okay."]]
[["Uh...That's okay, I'll pass."]]
Your cat-eared roommate flips the coin. Before you can see the result, she catches it out of the air and places it on the back of her right hand, covering it with her left.
"Now, is the quarter showing heads or tails?"
[["Heads."]]
[["Tails."]]
She shoots you a wicked smirk. "And THAT is Lesson Number One. Every choice is inevitable."
"Huh?"
"At that moment, our universe entered something called a 'superposition.' Basically a decision moment, right? If you were writing this conversation in binary, the answer would either be 0 or 1. Before you put in that answer, though, there ISN'T an answer - the answer is //both 0 and 1//. That's a superposition."
"How does that make my answer inevitable?"
"At any given moment of superposition, two multiverses are created: two entirely different histories, identical in every way EXCEPT for the decision of the superposition. In THIS history, you said no, but because of the nature of superpositions, there has to be another multiverse where you said yes."
She snickers. "So you're getting my lecture whether you like it or not. You're just not observing it in this history."
You sigh. It seems like if you want to get back to your evening, you have no choice but to entertain her.
[["Okay."]]
(set: $value to (random: 1,2))
(if: $value is 1)[She extends her hand and shows you the quarter. It's displaying heads.
Rather than remark on the result, she asks, "So what are the odds of what just happened?"
[["Fifty percent."]]
[["A hundred percent! I'm good at coin-flips."|Confidence]]
[["Uh, try zero percent. I'm the unluckiest person ever."|Nerves]]
[["Is this a trick question?"]]]
(if: $value is 2)[She extends her hand and shows you the quarter. It's displaying tails.
Rather than remark on the result, she asks, "So what are the odds of what just happened?"
[["Fifty percent."]]
[["Probably pretty good. I'm terrible at coin-flips."|Nerves]]
[["Less than five percent. I nail it almost every other time, promise!|Confidence]]
[["Is this a trick question?"]]]
(set: $value to (random: 1,2))
(if: $value is 1)[She extends her hand and shows you the quarter. It's displaying tails.
Rather than remark on the result, she asks, "So what are the odds of what just happened?"
[["Fifty percent."]]
[["A hundred percent! I'm good at coin-flips."|Confidence]]
[["Uh, try zero percent. I'm the unluckiest person ever."|Nerves]]
[["Is this a trick question?"]]]
(if: $value is 2)[She extends her hand and shows you the quarter. It's displaying heads.
Rather than remark on the result, she asks, "So what are the odds of what just happened?"
[["Fifty percent."]]
[["Probably pretty good. I'm terrible at coin-flips."|Nerves]]
[["Less than five percent. I nail it almost every other time, promise!"|Confidence]]
[["Is this a trick question?"]]]
She laughs. "Typical grade-school answer. Sorry, not the one I was looking for."
"How can that be?" you ask her. "It's 50-50; either the coin comes up heads, or it comes up tails. There aren't any other options, so how is it NOT fifty percent?"
"Simple," she answers. "You're forgetting the other variables."
"Huh?"
"First, you aren't taking //your choice// into consideration. If you do, then you'll see there were actually FOUR options: one where you call heads and it IS heads, one where you call heads and it's tails, and the two inverses of those situations. Four options comes out to twenty-five percent, not fifty.
"Second, you have to take many-worlds interpretation into consideration. When I asked you, 'heads or tails?', I effectively forced this universe into a thing called a 'superposition.' It's super small-scale, but still. Superpositions are basically decision points, where the universe could go one of any number of ways. Many-Worlds says that whenever a universe reaches one of those superpositions, then a number of different universes are born, each one going down a different path. In this case, two universes appeared when you picked a side of the coin, and then two more after I revealed whether or not you were right."
She casually flips the coin once more. "So if you're looking at it THAT way, then any particular outcome is actually inevitable; it just depends on which universe you're observing at the time."
[["You're crazy. That's not even how math works."]]
[["Wow, really? That's crazy to think about."]]
She lets out another laugh. You cringe slightly, becoming more and more uncomfortable every time she does it.
"Good job, ya caught me!" she congratulates. "Yes, that was absolutely a trick question."
"Knew it wouldn't be that easy. So what answer were you looking for?"
"It wasn't fifty-fifty, which is probably what you were thinking."
She resumes rolling the quarter between her fingers as she lectures. "First, you aren't taking //your choice// into consideration. If you do, then you'll see there were actually FOUR options: one where you call heads and it IS heads, one where you call heads and it's tails, and the two inverses of those situations. Four options comes out to twenty-five percent, not fifty.
"Second, you have to take many-worlds interpretation into consideration. When I asked you, 'heads or tails?', I effectively forced this universe into a thing called a 'superposition.' It's super small-scale, but still. Superpositions are basically decision points, where the universe could go one of any number of ways. Many-Worlds says that whenever a universe reaches one of those superpositions, then a number of different universes are born, each one going down a different path. In this case, two universes appeared when you picked a side of the coin, and then two more after I revealed whether or not you were right."
She casually flips the coin once more. "So if you're looking at it THAT way, then any particular outcome is actually inevitable; it just depends on which universe you're observing at the time."
[["You're crazy. That's not even how math works."]]
[["Wow, really? That's crazy to think about."]]
She laughs boisterously. "Ha! Cocky one, aren't you? Alright, I dig it - I like my toys with a little peacock in their step."
"Wait, what?"
She brushes you off with her hand. "Don't worry about it, I'm just drooling. Okay, so seriously, what's your answer?"
"I don't know, fifty percent?" It's the only reasonable answer you can come up with.
She leans in and bops your nose with her finger. "Nope."
"Okay, then explain it to me."
"Fine, I will."
She resumes rolling the quarter between her fingers as she lectures. "First, you aren't taking //your choice// into consideration. If you do, then you'll see there were actually FOUR options: one where you call heads and it IS heads, one where you call heads and it's tails, and the two inverses of those situations. Four options comes out to twenty-five percent, not fifty.
"Second, you have to take many-worlds interpretation into consideration. When I asked you, 'heads or tails?', I effectively forced this universe into a thing called a 'superposition.' It's super small-scale, but still. Superpositions are basically decision points, where the universe could go one of any number of ways. Many-Worlds says that whenever a universe reaches one of those superpositions, then a number of different universes are born, each one going down a different path. In this case, two universes appeared when you picked a side of the coin, and then two more after I revealed whether or not you were right."
She casually flips the coin once more. "So if you're looking at it THAT way, then any particular outcome is actually inevitable; it just depends on which universe you're observing at the time."
[["You're crazy. That's not even how math works."]]
[["Wow, really? That's crazy to think about."]]
She gives you a sympathetic smile. "Aw, it's okay. You're not actually, you know - that's just a negative confirmation bias. Your brain is more likely to remember the times you call it wrong than the times you call it right. Statistically, you should call it fifty percent of the time."
"So that wasn't a trick question? The answer was just fifty-fifty?"
"I didn't say //that//, now did I?"
"Huh?"
She smirks. "First, you aren't taking //your choice// into consideration. If you do, then you'll see there were actually FOUR options: one where you call heads and it IS heads, one where you call heads and it's tails, and the two inverses of those situations. Four options comes out to twenty-five percent, not fifty.
"Second, you have to take many-worlds interpretation into consideration. When I asked you, 'heads or tails?', I effectively forced this universe into a thing called a 'superposition.' It's super small-scale, but still. Superpositions are basically decision points, where the universe could go one of any number of ways. Many-Worlds says that whenever a universe reaches one of those superpositions, then a number of different universes are born, each one going down a different path. In this case, two universes appeared when you picked a side of the coin, and then two more after I revealed whether or not you were right."
She casually flips the coin once more. "So if you're looking at it THAT way, then any particular outcome is actually inevitable; it just depends on which universe you're observing at the time."
[["You're crazy. That's not even how math works."]]
[["Wow, really? That's crazy to think about."]]
She shrugs. "To be fair, I'm a quantum theorist, not a math teacher. Crazy I'll own, though."
She pockets the coin. "Okay, here, I have another idea." Then she pauses suddenly. "Or should I...?"
After a moment of internal debate, she looks to you. "Scratch that, I have two ideas. Do you want to play another game, or should we look out the window and make someone else the victim?"
[["Alright, I'll keep playing along."]]
[["Uh, someone else can be the guinea pig this time."]]
[["I choose neither. I think I get your point."]]
She smiles. "I know, right? Man, teachers in elementary school love telling you, 'Oh, you can be anything when you grow up!', but you don't really comprehend that until you ACTUALLY play with quantum mechanics and //be// everything."
She pockets the coin. "Okay, here, I have another idea." Then she pauses suddenly. "Or should I...?"
After a moment of internal debate, she looks to you. "Scratch that, I have two ideas. Do you want to play another game, or should we look out the window and make someone else the victim?"
[["Alright, I'll keep playing along."]]
[["Uh, someone else can be the guinea pig this time."]]
[["I choose neither. I think I get your point."]]
//Click.//
No sooner do the words leave your mouth do you hear the sound of clicking metal. Suddenly, the strange cat-girl is holding a gun. Specifically, she's pointing it at you.
"A game of Russian Roulette always gets the lesson across. How many times should I spin the chamber?"
[["Uh... once?"]]
[["Jesus! I don't know, lots of times?"]]
[["Are you crazy?! Put that thing away!"]]
"Okay! That's my favorite way of doing things anyway."
She escorts you over towards the window. The two of you look down into the streets. It's an impressive view - your room is on the ninth floor, and your building sits near the tennis and soccer practice fields, so there's always foot traffic and pick-up games to watch.
She points your attention to a couple strolling along, fresh out of the tennis courts. The gentleman is one you recognize from Greek Row; he's quite handsome, especially with his shirt off, and his hair is slicked back and glistening. The young lady is one of your classmates. She's dressed in a crisp, white tennis dress and laughing loudly. The two are holding hands as they walk.
"Ooh, there's a pair of tasty ones," your roommate says, licking her lips with a quiet chuckle.
"Yeah, but what about them?"
"You wanna see one of them explode?"
"What?"
"Go ahead." She leans against the window, casually listening for your answer as she watches them stroll past. "Pick one."
On the one hand, you want to instantly brush her off. She can't //really// make people explode, that would be insane. On the other... what if she can?
[["Okay, I pick the guy."]]
[["Okay, I pick the girl."]]
She pouts a little. "Alright, alright, guess I've had my fun. Sure I can't change your mind? Come on, it's fun, I promise!"
[["...On second thought..."]]
[["No, I'm done. I'm not 'observing' any universe where we keep this insanity up."]]
Is there a strategy for Russian Roulette? If there is, you can't think of what it is right now. Your strategy is to have her move the barrel as little as possible and hope... or rather **pray** for the best.
"Alright, good luck!"
She pulls the trigger. You cringe, nearly stumbling to the floor from fright.
//Click.// It's a blank.
"See?" She says with a smile.
"See what?! You just tried to murder me!"
"Except I didn't. Look, you're fine. THAT'S the theory of observable universes. There was a superposition, but instead of you making a choice, we left it to chance. Now you're here, observing the universe where you DIDN'T get shot."
The look on her face suddenly unsettles you. "'Cause, y'know, you can't observe the other universe, you're dead in that one."
[["Yeah, that made it much clearer. Thanks for the lesson."|Complacent]]
[["Still, I preferred the coin to nearly getting shot and dying."|Aggressive]]
[["So you're just okay with killing me in another universe?"|Argue the Point]]
Is there a strategy for Russian Roulette? If there is, you can't think of what it is right now. Your strategy is to have her move the barrel as much as possible and hope... or rather **pray** for the best.
"Alright, good luck!"
She pulls the trigger. You cringe, nearly stumbling to the floor from fright.
//Click.// It's a blank.
"See?" She says with a smile.
"See what?! You just tried to murder me!"
"Except I didn't. Look, you're fine. THAT'S the theory of observable universes. There was a superposition, but instead of you making a choice, we left it to chance. Now you're here, observing the universe where you DIDN'T get shot."
The look on her face suddenly unsettles you. "'Cause, y'know, you can't observe the other universe, you're dead in that one."
[["Yeah, that made it much clearer. Thanks for the lesson."|Complacent]]
[["Still, I preferred the coin to nearly getting shot and dying."|Aggressive]]
[["So you're just okay with killing me in another universe?"|Argue the Point]]
Despite your fear, her gun does not lower. "Look, it's the coin scenario all over again, just now with bullets. If it's heads, you live. If it's tails, you live on in the universe where it was actually heads. Either way, you're going to be fine. It's just a question of whether or not you trust me."
[["...Okay, I trust you."]]
[["No, I'm not trusting anyone with a gun! Put it down!"]]
She gives another eerie cackle. "Ha! People always change their mind if you give them the option to! God, I love how easy it is to play with the human brain sometimes."
The way she says that makes you feel unsettling. Unfortunately, you've made your choice. So once again, she proposes the question: "Do you want to play another game, or should we look out the window and make someone else the victim?"
[["Alright, I'll keep playing along."]]
[["Uh, someone else can be the guinea pig this time."]]
"Ha. Clever. Alright, guess that's my fun. I should get back to work. Sorry to melt your brain with all the quantum physics; I'm kind of a nerd sometimes." She flips you the coin. "Hey, if you ever want to chew my ear off for an hour about your major, I'll give you a listen. Fair's fair, right?"
"Right."
As the cat-ear-wearing girl sits back down to her paper, you slide back into your seat at your own desk. Quantum mechanics, many-worlds interpretation, superpositioning, even now her words are simultaneously rattling around in your head and going straight over top of it.
Your original assessment still stands. Your roommate is a nice girl, and she seems very dedicated and works very hard on pursuing her degree.
But she is also very, very odd.
["Skeptic" End.]
She smiles at you. "I knew you'd get it, you're smart."
Then she leans back and rolls her eyes. "Seriously, there's this one kid in my class, I've done this stuff to him twenty times and he STILL can't wrap his brain around it. And he wants to be a string theorist, can you believe that?"
You smile, albeit a bit nervously. Sure, her methods are... extreme, and certainly unorthodox, but she knows how to get her point across. She seems harmless enough.
With a loud yawn and a stretch, she gets up and returns to her desk. "Alright, I better get back to work. Midterm papers don't write themselves."
Before she gets back to work, though, she flips her quarter one last time. It crashes to the floor, and she quickly steps on it before either of you can see what it is.
"Quick, is it heads or tails?"
[["It's heads."|Bad End]]
[["It's tails."|Bad End]]
[["It's both."|Good End]]
She puts her hands up, as if surrendering to your aggression before an actual fight breaks out. "Whoa, whoa, chill out! Everything's fine, isn't it?"
"No, everything is not fine! You can't just DO that to people!"
The loud, confident cat-girl you've been dealing with retreats. She cowers back, eyes falling to the floor.
"Yeah, I get that a lot," she says softly. "Sorry I scared you. I'll go back to working on my paper now."
Several tense moments of silence pass as the two of you return to your desks and your roommate resumes working on her paper.
Then, out of nowhere, you hear a quarter //cling// against the floor. You move to pick it up, thinking she must have dropped it, but your roommate quickly covers it with her foot.
"Quick, is it heads or tails?"
[["It's heads."|Bad End]]
[["It's tails."|Bad End]]
[["It's both."|Good End]]
She merely shrugs. "Hey, as far as I'm concerned, no one is dead as far as they know. For most people who never think about many-worlds or existentialism or any of that philisophical nonsense, that's good enough for them."
She looks at you. "You're alive right now, right? Would you rather be dead so another version of yourself could live?"
You don't respond to her.
With a loud yawn and a stretch, she gets up and returns to her desk. "Alright, I better get back to work. Midterm papers don't write themselves."
Before she gets back to work, though, she flips her quarter one last time. It crashes to the floor, and she quickly steps on it before either of you can see what it is.
"Quick, is it heads or tails?"
[["It's heads."|Bad End]]
[["It's tails."|Bad End]]
[["It's both."|Good End]]
You shut your eyes tight immediately after saying it. A few minutes ago, you thought your roommate was crazy. Now you're starting to think that YOU'RE the crazy one.
//Click.// It's a blank.
"See?" She says with a smile.
"See what?! You just tried to murder me!"
"Except I didn't. Look, you're fine. THAT'S the theory of observable universes. There was a superposition, but instead of you making a choice, we left it to chance. Now you're here, observing the universe where you DIDN'T get shot."
The look on her face suddenly unsettles you. "'Cause, y'know, you can't observe the other universe, you're dead in that one."
[["Yeah, that made it much clearer. Thanks for the lesson."|Complacent]]
[["Still, I preferred the coin to nearly getting shot and dying."|Aggressive]]
[["So you're just okay with killing me in another universe?"|Argue the Point]]
Finally, her mania seems to falter. The stern nature in your voice causes her to back off.
She puts the gun away. "Okay, okay. Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."
An awkward moment of silence passes. "Don't think I could convince you to play another round?"
"No, I'm done. I'm not 'observing' any more universes where we keep this insanity up."
"Ha. Clever. Alright, guess that's my fun. I should get back to work. Sorry to melt your brain with all the quantum physics; I'm kind of a nerd sometimes." She flips you the coin. "Hey, if you ever want to chew my ear off for an hour about your major, I'll give you a listen. Fair's fair, right?"
"Right."
As the cat-ear-wearing girl sits back down to her paper, you slide back into your seat at your own desk. Quantum mechanics, many-worlds interpretation, superpositioning, even now her words are simultaneously rattling around in your head and going straight over top of it.
Your original assessment still stands. Your roommate is a nice girl, and she seems very dedicated and works very hard on pursuing her degree.
But she is also very, very odd.
["Skeptic" End.]
You turn your gaze to watch the couple resume your merry stroll.
...And then you watch in abject horror as the fraternity brother explodes. His head and limbs fly in all directions, and his ribcage bursts outwards. Blood splatters everywhere, including a wave of it that crashes over his girlfriend. Her dress is now soaked a sickly shade of red, and you can hear her shrieking through a bulletproof window on the ninth floor.
You blink a few times, and then it's gone. Everything disappears, and the happy couple is strolling down the street once more.
For a moment, you notice your roommate's hand on your shoulder, but she retracts it just as you're noticing it's there.
"You wanna see one of them explode?"
"What?"
"Go ahead." She leans against the window, casually listening for your answer as she watches them stroll past. "Pick one."
[["Okay, I pick the guy."]]
[["Okay, I pick the girl."]]
[["What was that?! No, don't make anyone explode!!"]]
You turn your gaze to watch the couple resume your merry stroll.
...And then you watch in abject horror as your classmate explodes. Her head and limbs fly in all directions, and her ribcage bursts outwards. Blood splatters everywhere, including a wave of it that crashes over her boyfriend. His hair mats and his exposed skin stains red. He's stunned to silence, but you can almost still see the tears brimming in his eyes.
You blink a few times, and then it's gone. Everything disappears, and the happy couple is strolling down the street once more.
For a moment, you notice your roommate's hand on your shoulder, but she retracts it just as you're noticing it's there.
"You wanna see one of them explode?"
"What?"
"Go ahead." She leans against the window, casually listening for your answer as she watches them stroll past. "Pick one."
[["Okay, I pick the guy."]]
[["Okay, I pick the girl."]]
[["What was that?! No, don't make anyone explode!!"]]
You have a look of horror glued onto your face, but she merely laughs. "Oh, my gosh, you should see your face right now."
"How are you laughing at this?! Someone just //died!//"
"No, they didn't." She motions you to look down once again at the happy couple, none the wiser as they stroll out of view. "See? No dead bodies there."
"But I..." You're //certain// you watched one of them explode into a shower of blood and limbs. And yet...
"Quantum manipulation is my specialty," she says confidently. "I have the ability to go back and revisit superpositions to explore all possible outcomes. You saw one of them explode because you were in that universe; then I brought you back here, and took us both down the path where you told me no. All of the experience, none of the legal backlash - it's awesome, right?"
[["Yeah, that made it much clearer. Thanks for the lesson."|Complacent]]
[["Still, I preferred the coin to watching someone EXPLODE."|Aggressive]]
[["So you're just okay with killing other people in other universes?"|Argue the Point]]
She frowns and rolls her eyes before picking up the quarter and pocketing it. "Eh, some people never learn."
You sit back down at your desk. Your assessment from earlier has not changed; in fact, this encounter has only served to confirm it.
Your roommate is weird.
["Nothing Lost, Nothing Gained" End.]
She shoots you one last smile. With a kick of her foot, she slides the quarter over to you, almost as if offering you a sign of good faith. "You learn quick. I like you. We should definitely hang out some more if I can get this paper finished tonight."
"How about we just watch a movie or play some video-games instead?"
She lets out a loud laugh. "Yeah, definitely! No more dragging you into my homework, promise!"
As she returns to her paper, you return to your own desk. Suddenly, you're rethinking your initial assessment. Okay, yes, your roommate is still very much //odd.// Her clothes are bizarre, you're still not certain why she wears the cat-ears, and the fact that she's majoring in quantum mechanics is a little different from the norm.
But, you decide, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Maybe you've just made a friend today.
["Lesson Learned" End.]