'You May Rely On It' [WIP]

Being ‘awake’ is far different than being ‘up.’ Myxuki was certainly awake, having wasted an estimated hour or so or so on actively not getting out of bed. One hour of listening to the sound of chit-chat and footsteps outside her room, of repeatedly seeing what new offerings the internet held at its surface, of wondering if her flowers have finally sprouted and promptly counting the days that have passed and determining that it should take another week for them to grow. All this was proceeded by six or so minutes of wondering why she still hasn't gotten up and then answering her own question, only to completely abandon the thread of thought and resort to bargaining disguised as a plan.
‘If I get up, I can make some coffee or tea to go with breakfast.’ And for breakfast? ‘There’s Instant oatmeal in the cabinet.’ or, there was the last time she checked.

As it turns out, bribery by food was a powerful tool, playing towards the gradually increasing feeling of hunger that has plagued her throughout this hour. With another estimated four minutes wasted, she kicked off her blanket and got out of bed.

Myxuki’s morning routine played out as it does nearly every day; With a series of light piano tunes accompanied by relaxed brass instruments were played through an app on her phone, acting as background music to basic tasks such as getting dressed, making her bed, and brushing her hair. These should take her no time at all, but the spaces between these tasks were filled with others that varied day by day. She picked up some laundry, allowed her thoughts to wander, and used her favored search engine to answer a few silly questions that she thought up in the meantime.

Today’s questions were oddly clothing based, with the first being: ‘Who invented jeans?’ Myxuki was surprised that she hadn’t asked this one before, seeing as they were so popular. Even she wore them most of the time. According to the first few sources, jeans were invented by Jacob W. Davis and Levi Strauss.

A few more sessions of searching the internet later, she left her room and headed downstairs to the kitchen. The Valget House, or whatever they might care to call their own place, was sizable. It had to be considering the sheer number of people that live here. This morning there were surprisingly few people around the kitchen, which left Myxuki mostly on her own.

After filling the kettle and setting it on a stove burner she approached the counter and reached up to open the cupboard, but was now faced with two choices; Coffee or tea? Regular or decaf? Ordinarily, this decision would either be made on a whim or out of a predetermined, well thought out choice. She would want coffee, caffeine and all if she wanted to remain awake or try for a bit of motivation. For a calmer mood- relaxing outside, or perhaps reading a book- she was more likely to choose decaffeinated black tea. She had no plans, so no predetermined idea of what to choose, and a feeling of indecisiveness was beginning to creep into her mind.

But she had an unlikely cure for this. A few days prior, Before Derek left, he shared with her a silly app on his phone, based on an equally silly novelty toy that she as an eatharyian didn’t fully grasp. It was called a ‘magic eight ball,’ but the name was only two thirds accurate; it was indisputably a ball with the number ‘8’ stickered onto the back, but nothing about it was magic. All it did was simulate the rolling of a die with twenty possible responses, and the app replicated these responses. She hadn’t yet deleted the app, so why not use it for something?

She pulled her phone out of its cozy pants-pocket home and opened the app, casting her breakfast beverage decision into the hands of fate; ‘Should I drink coffee instead of tea?’

With the tap of a virtual button, a gif ran its course, displaying a blue die surfacing from the simulated abyss and revealing it answer, ‘My reply is no.’

Then, the second question: ‘Should I drink decaffeinated tea instead of regular tea?’

Again, the image produced a response, ‘Most likely.’

Myxuki returned her phone to her pocket with the shake of her head and a light chuckle, reflective of the realization that she just allowed a phone app based on a toy to make the decision for her. Nevertheless, she reached into the cupboard and retrieved a tea bag from her box of decaffeinated black tea, beginning to unwrap it just as the kettle started to whistle.