[color=f23822]Roger D’Monty[/color]

The last few days had been a blur for the red furred Capybara. Between finishing up his novel for a class, and a paper for Introduction to Genre, academics had been stressful for Roger. This was not helped by how cold it had been, Roger being one who preferred the indoors, and the fact that he had developed a migraine headache. It had started small at first, a pinging in the back of his head. But by the time yesterday morning had come, his head felt like someone was using a jack hammer on it.

As Roger tried getting out of bed, vertigo surrounded him, knocking him back down. In no state to attend class, Roger had spent the day lying down in his dorm room, miserable about how he was feeling, and anxious about missing class. Still, the most he could do was take some pain killers and try to sleep. At some point that night, the vertigo made Roger throw up into his toilet. It seemed to have flushed his system as he was able to sleep peacefully after that.

When morning came Roger was surprised that he mostly felt better. As he got out of bed, he found no vertigo and the pain in his head was now a dull ting. Feeling good about himself, Roger immediately backpedaled when he noticed that the fur around his mouth had some bits of vomit left in it. Feeling grossed out, Roger made a beeline for the dorm showers, wanting to wash the sickness off of himself.

The rushing water of the shower helped clear Roger’s head. As he turned off the tap, Roger felt a lot better about himself. He even whistled a little tune as he went back through the hallway to his dorm room. A poster on the wall caught Roger’s eye as he neared his room. In big letters it announced the Winter Carnival. Roger stopped whistling, realizing that he had completely forgot about the Winter Carnival. In fact, the poster said it started today.

As Roger re-entered his room and began to change into some fresh clothes, he debated attending the carnival. The inner debate was quickly broken up by a phantasm memory of Roger’s Mother. She had always encouraged Roger to go and make friends, and not just online people who liked his videos. Roger took a second to think, before agreeing with the memory of his Mother.

Figuring he should get into the winter spirit, Roger threw on a sweater featuring the Bumble from the old Rudolph cartoon, and a big puffy red winter jacket. Once Roger was ready to go he thought about asking his roommate to come along, only to see that he wasn’t there. Roger thought that maybe he should try making friends with his roommate, but they only exchanged maybe two words a week as he only seemed to come back to his dorm room at midnight to sleep, and then leave at the crack of dawn.

With the roommate out as an option, Roger’s quest to make an IRL friend had to be taken elsewhere. So, Roger left the building and headed toward the gated off area just outside the dorms. Under a massive sign that said: ENTER HERE, Roger saw an ageing grizzly bear with a sweet smile.

Roger approached the bear, “How much for entry?”

“Um, aren’t you a student?” the grizzly laughed, “If so you get in for free. I just need to see your student ID.”

“Really?” Roger replied, feeling a little dumb as he pulled out his wallet and ID from within, “I forgot that we were supposed to get perks with the cards.”

“Yeah, you would be surprised by all the stuff the University gives away,” the bear replied as he looked at Roger’s ID, “Anyway, go in and have some fun.”

Roger gave the bear a small smile as he entered the Winter Carnival. Once through the gate, Roger was greeted with a plethora of smells of different cuisines. While the school cafeteria did have a decent variety of food, what could be found right by the carnival’s entrance immediately eclipsed it. Next to Roger was a truck selling bowls of pasta with beetle sauce, the aroma almost making Roger wish he wasn’t a herbivore. The next smell that hit him was of something he could eat, deep fried berries with sugar powder.

Roger immediately bought an order, not caring that he was having dessert for breakfast. As he chewed he decided to leave the food area, knowing that if he stayed he would spend all his money on these amazing foods. As Roger finished devouring his meal, he came upon the school club stand sections. Roger had always intended to join a club at University, to find like minded people, but he had initially had trouble balancing school, video making, and his social life. But now Roger felt he had a better grip on his time.

Roger began to walk among the stands, only for someone to shout, “Hey, sweet sweater!”

Roger turned toward the voice, half expecting it to be someone mocking him for being a nerd. Instead he saw a Fox sitting behind the anime club table, “The Bumble doesn’t get enough love.”

“Wow,” Roger said nervously, “It’s rare to find someone who knows what this is.”

“Yeah, I love stop motion animation,” the Fox replied, “Well any kind of animation.”

A Ram sitting next to the Fox elbowed his ribs, “Oh right! Anime as well,” he said, “Would you be interested in joining the anime club? I promise we’re not weirdos.”

Roger glanced at the various anime figures littering the table, before laughing, “It’s cool. I’m down with weird, mostly movies though.”

“Well I used to be into classic western animation exclusively, but Brian here,” the Ram looked up from the manga he was reading, “Got me into anime back in high school. I would highly recommend it.”

“You know what? Tell me more,” Roger said with genuine interest.

Roger and the Fox continued to talk, as the young Capybara felt at ease, not even conscious thinking about his need to make friends.