Forcing Fun at Foxbury (Dysis)

The atmosphere in the house was still burdened by grief, so the five youngest Fiers decided to spend the day on campus, ideally surrounded by the youthful, optimistic energy of their peers. Dysis, especially, craved change as everything had begun appearing empty and meaningless to her. She hoped changing her mood would be as easy as changing her location.

But it wasn’t that easy.

Yet, Dysis pressed on, climbed the Foxbury Institute’s too many stairs, entered the university commons, found an empty seat, and tried to focus on her coursework. No more dangerous procrastination, no more bad grades, no more stress-ridden finals, more friends—that was her mantra.

But it wasn’t inspiring. It didn’t motivate her. Dysis completed her work, but still felt nothing.

Deli noticed her sister’s mood and suggested that they run over to the campus arcade and play some games.

Dysis tried, but she’d forgotten how to make playing fun.

She also didn’t want to admit it (and would never admit it) because she loved her sister, but at the moment, she felt less than good things about Deli. Deli made Dysis’ struggles look trivial. Deli was immortal. Deli had paired her full course load with perfect grades. Deli also had a full-time job and was on track to reach the top levels of her career before she graduated—university was fun and games, an absolute joke to her, so was it any wonder why one of the family’s homes was decorated with pictures of Deli and not Dysis? Dysis struggled to simply balance her classes and her relationship with her boyfriend.

Maybe she was just too hungry: hangry. Dysis left Deli and returned to the small cafe where she had done some work earlier. Still trying to make the best of things, Dysis decided to give making new friends a go as she figured that she might as well attempt to expand her social circle beyond her boyfriend and her siblings.

She offered a tentative wave to those nearest her and attempted to have a conversation, but it just didn’t go well. She couldn’t concentrate on what they were saying and questioned why she was trying to make more friends in the first place.

Her thoughts drifted to her boyfriend, Rashad, and while she didn’t feel like seeing him at the moment either, she wondered if she should just quit every single thing she was doing and pursue starting a family with Rashad instead.

Meanwhile, Darius had challenged his twin, Dyna, to a game of foosball.

Darius: I know that you’re an athlete and that you should be good at things like this and that I’m a sophisticated gentleman of the arts and that I should experience more feelings firsthand so that I can express them properly through my art, but since I’m not capable of losing to you—I’m going to need you to explain to me the feeling of losing after this game. Thanks.

But in the end, he lost, so he didn’t have to worry about indirect experience. He needed to worry about matching his game play level to his mouth.

Note: Foxbury Commons is a CC-free build by Devon Bumpkin (EA ID: DevonBumpkin). It’s on the gallery.