welcome to champagne from a paper cup. we're a real life roleplay that centers around the lives of university students, staff, and (of course) the locals that are affected by both as they attend or teach at henry woodward college. henry woodward college was founded back in 1812 which means that it is quickly coming up on it's bicentennial birthday. with that in mind, the students at henry woodward are going to each celebrate in their own way. for many, this will mean breaking out as much illegal alcohol that they can get their hands on and pouring it into the oh too famous red solo cup. but, for some, they will choose to ignore it seeing the day as a really lame reason for a party. so, what will you choose to do? will you choose to be on the side that thinks that a college's birthday is nothing to celebrate? or will you see anything as a good reason for a party no matter how lame? after all, you know what they say, college is a good place to discover what your true core values are.
please register with your character's first and last name in all capital letters. if you happen to register incorrectly, then simply contact an administrator to fix it for you before posting your application. we hope to see you soon! good luck with your application to hwc!
champagne from a paper cup was made entirely by the dedicated staff. the skin was made by kelsey. the site graphics were made by steph. the forum graphics were made by steph. all claim codes were the collective work of the admins. the characters are credit to the minds of the lovely members who made them. any coding or graphics that are used are credit to their makers. please don't steal anything. we will have to send klaus after you.
last year, eden would never have been caught dead in the library this early on in the semester. she would usually be crawling around the kappa house, battling with some demon hangover and crying into a pile of late homework. but this was her senior year, and, as everyone had advised, she had begun to take it a little more seriously. after all, the college had said she wouldn't be accepted for her choice grad programme if she didn't start turning in work on time, and eden couldn't handle that. it seemed as she entered the library, that many others in her class had had the same thought. the tables were filled high with heavy textbooks, the heads of their owners barely visible over the piles. the line at the front desk was growing by the second, and a disheartened sigh escaped eden as she dodged the crowd and made for the stacks.
after four years, it was definitely not as difficult to manoeuvre the library as it once had been, and eden quickly dashed down the criminal justice aisle towards the psychology textbooks, instantly regretting her shortcut as she saw someone hunched over a thick, dust-coated book, stood right in her path. brennan lockard was the one person she avoided by default, and to bump into him in the library, of all places, was exactly the thing to drive her insane. had her pride not gotten the better of her, she would have turned around and walked back the other way. but the fear that brennan had already noticed her was too much and it drove her forward towards him. with a slight cough, she bowed her head and mumbled a short "excuse me," in as civil a tone as she could muster, while she waited for him to silently move out the way.
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i'm out on the edge
and i'm screaming my name like a fool at the top of my lungs sometimes when I close my eyes I pretend I'm alright but it's never enough cause my echo, echo is the only voice coming back my shadow, shadow is the only friend that I have I don't wanna be down and I just wanna feel
though it was still early in the semester, brennan knew that this was the year he had to keep on top of his school work. not that he hadn't, in years past, but this was his senior year. basically the rest of his life was relying on him getting the best grades possible and getting into either law school, or a master's program somewhere. he was flexible about that part, but still. his entire future was resting on this year. that's why, instead of spending his day in the living room of the frat house, playing assassin's creed for hours on end with landon and eli, brennan was holed up in the library, getting a head start on some of his more major projects for the semester. ethics, professional development, research methods - it was pretty dry stuff, but it had to be done, so he sucked it up, settled himself at a table in the far corner, and got to work.
at the point when he couldn't sit for another minute without either going crazy or falling asleep, brennan had made some pretty good headway, so he decided it was time to get up and stretch. he needed to grab a book from the stacks, so he headed that way, glad to get some feeling back in his legs. he was browsing the books in the criminal justice section when he saw a familiar figure approaching out of the corner of his eye. he didn't look up from his book, gritting his teeth together to keep from saying something he would later regret. eden rivers was the last person brennan expected to see in the library, especially so early in the year, but maybe if he didn't say anything, she'd just pass and ignore him like she often did-- oh. too late. with a deep sigh, brennan looked up from his book, refusing to look directly at her. "shouldn't you be nursing a hangover somewhere?" he muttered, eyes flicking everywhere but to her face. he knew that was harsh - but he was still hurt from her breaking his heart, though he'd never admit it to anyone but himself.
the minute she spoke she regretted it. she should have turned around and braved the crowd instead of taking the shortcut that led to what was about to become a very awkward conversation. a few months ago, eden would have understood brennan's hostility towards her. they had been madly in love, and she had up and left him without a word as to why. it was understandable that he would be pissed off, heartbroken even. but it had been a year and he had slept with enough people for eden to be sure he was over her. which meant he was just being a dick to spite her. and he knew better than anyone that she gave as good as she got. it was never-ending with them.
planting her feet firmly on the carpeted floor, eden folded her arms across her chest and narrowed her eyes at his averted face. "shouldn't you be fucking some sophomore somewhere?" she spat back, her tone poisonous. the break up might have been her fault - not that she would ever admit that - and something in her still loved brennan, but the way he spoke to her, with no feeling, was enough to make her forget that entirely. he couldn't even look at her. after everything they had said, everything they had been through and he wouldn't even look her in the eye when he insulted her. surely she deserved eye contact? nothing she had done could be that awful. after all, she had given him freedom from committment, she had allowed him to enjoy the college life that every frat guy wanted. sucking in her breath, she fought back the lump that was forming in her throat, "get out of my way brennan." she added bluntly, praying that he was feeling forgiving enough to let her through without a fight.
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i'm out on the edge
and i'm screaming my name like a fool at the top of my lungs sometimes when I close my eyes I pretend I'm alright but it's never enough cause my echo, echo is the only voice coming back my shadow, shadow is the only friend that I have I don't wanna be down and I just wanna feel
he knew he was being harsh. as much as she had broken his heart, as hurt as he still was, a year later, eden did not deserve for brennan to be a complete asshole to her. even if he still loved her, even if they had both slept with other people since the breakup, eden didn't deserve that. but somehow, brennan couldn't stop. it was like, as soon as she had broken up with him, he had reverted to high school brennan - that cocky asshole who played girls like he played basketball, and didn't care who he hurt. that wasn't true - he didn't intentionally hurt girls. he made sure they knew that he wasn't looking for a relationship, and he didn't lead them on in any way. still, there was a lot more of high school brennan in him now than there was when he first started college, and he wasn't sure he liked it. he had tried so hard not to be that guy when he was a freshman and a sophomore, and now as a senior he had little frat brothers looking up to him and a future on the horizon, and he was being an ass. not his best work.
still, being around eden made him so mad, he didn't even think about his words or his actions. he finally looked up at her when she bluntly responded to his dumb ass question with one of her own, his blue eyes meeting hers for the first time in months. he could tell that what he'd said had hurt her, but he couldn't bring himself to apologize. had she apologized when she'd hurt him? no, she'd just gone on with her life like nothing had changed. brennan knew that eden was sleeping around, just like he was. but somehow, it seemed different. "oh, ouch, you really got me there," brennan retorted, sarcasm dripping from his voice. the thing was, they were both saying things that they knew were true; neither of them had been hiding their lifestyles from one another. but somehow they managed to make it out to be the worst thing in the world, when really it didn't mean anything. "you know, maybe if you asked nicely, i would do that for you, eden. but." brennan shrugged, standing in the middle of the aisle with his book. he was acting like a child, and he knew it. but if she could, then so could he.
while brennan and eden hadn't exactly been on speaking terms for the past year, eden would be lying if she said she hadn't been paying attention to him, or to what he was getting up to, and clearly the same could be said for him. she had noticed how utterly unlike brennan he had become. she had known him since freshman year, when he was the baby-faced pledge who had spent a summer saving the environment, he was polite and pleasant and treated everyone with nothing but respect. he had retained the good-natured attitude throughout the relationship, and eden had truly believed that brennan was the person she would marry. but now, through the rage that built inside her, swelling her chest and clouding her eyes, she was thankful that she had ended things with him. he was arrogant and careless and not in the loveable way that he had once been. he had let his sixteen year old self escape and get out of control and eden was fighting every urge she had not to reach out and strangle it just so she could have her brennan back.
the sadness she had felt a moment ago drained from her instantly and was replaced by a strong desire to get out of his way before she said something she regretted. moving so she stood inches from his face, so close she was breathing in the far too familiar scent of his shampoo, she eyed him with such ferocity that she could barely believe it came from her. "move brennan." she hissed, her words sharp and dangerous. of course, brennan being the dick he now was stood firm. fuck this she thought to herself, dropping her arms to her side in a gesture of sheer exasperation. "god!" she sighed, her frustration growing more by the second, "what the fuck is your problem brennan? do you want another fight? because i swear to god i won't hold back on kicking your ass." of all people, he should know that she meant it. after all, the last fight they had ended with brennan nursing a red hand printed cheek and eden nursing a severely bruised ego. "or are you that much of a bitch now that you don't care?" she asked, a hint of vulnerability creeping out between her gritted teeth. him being a dick was one thing, but admitting he didn't care anymore? it would break her heart.
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i'm out on the edge
and i'm screaming my name like a fool at the top of my lungs sometimes when I close my eyes I pretend I'm alright but it's never enough cause my echo, echo is the only voice coming back my shadow, shadow is the only friend that I have I don't wanna be down and I just wanna feel
brennan was lucky, in a way. he had friends who kept an eye on eden for him, made sure she wasn't getting herself into too much trouble. maybe he had lost the right to care about her when she broke up with him, but he said fuck it - he would always care about her. eden rivers was the first girl that brennan had ever really, truly loved. she was his world for an entire year, and then she just cut him out of her life completely. he couldn't let that happen. he knew she was out of control; her brother told him, eli told him. everyone could see it. brennan knew it was cocky, to think that it had something to do with him, but he couldn't help wonder if it was true. he would admit - not out loud, but to himself at least - that the breakup was the reason he had been acting the way he was for the last year. maybe it was the reason for her, too. or maybe not. either way, brennan wanted to pull her into his arms, hold her closely, and tell her that it was all going to be okay. they could work through it, they could be together again. but then she was mere inches away from his face, and she was growling at him, and he was remembering the last time he had been this close to her - right before she broke up with him, he had pulled her in and told her that he loved her, low and sincere, and that they were going to be okay. they had just fought, and he was trying to pick up the pieces, grasping desperately at straws. it had been futile though, and he knew it would be just as futile now to fight back. still, he couldn't just stand there and take it from her. that wasn't how brennan operated. "what are you gonna do, eden?" he shot back at her, refusing to take his gaze from hers. "you gonna hit me in the library? go ahead, i dare you. i didn't do anything to you, and you know it -- so go on, hit me!" brennan taunted, holding his arms out to his sides. his voice was getting louder, and he knew they were attracting confused stares, but he didn't care. "hit me with your best shot."
she didn't know whether it was the shock of brennan retaliating or the judgemental stares from the mumbling students who littered the stacks, eden found herself backing away from him, the wind knocked from her lungs as she looked breathlessly into his cold eyes. had she done this to him? had the break up really been that hard on him? and for a second, she hated herself. she hated what she had done to him. she hated that she hadn't even tried to work through her issues with him. she hated that he cared that little that he didn't even try and make her feel better anymore. she had lost him for good and that realisation hit her right there in the middle of the college library. tears gathered in her eyes, threatening to fall as she sniffed them back, determined not to give him the satisfaction of knowing that she was breaking.
eden hugged her arms around herself, so tight that she could barely feel them anymore, if only to keep herself from breaking his nose right here. her chest was heavy and her voice was cracking as she fought down the lump in her throat. "you know," she began, clearing her throat as she raised her eyes to meet his once more, the anger flushed, replaced by an utter helplessness. "i loved you. more than i ever thought i could love anyone. and i know i fucked that up, i admit it. but right now," she sucked in her breath and narrowed her eyes, a solitary tear falling down her cheek. "christ, i thought maybe i still loved you. but i think this, you, has proved me completely wrong." the words spilt from her mouth with little care for who was watching and who might hear. "now can you please move out of my way." tears fell freely now, and she made no attempt to wipe them away, her walls completely down now. any hope of brennan not seeing her like this had been crushed. in that moment, she was utterly vulnerable and that scared her more than anything.
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i'm out on the edge
and i'm screaming my name like a fool at the top of my lungs sometimes when I close my eyes I pretend I'm alright but it's never enough cause my echo, echo is the only voice coming back my shadow, shadow is the only friend that I have I don't wanna be down and I just wanna feel
he knew he wasn't helping his case. being an asshole wasn't going to make eden want to get back together with him; if anything, it would only push her further away. but maybe pushing her away was easier, because if he didn't have to see her or talk to her, he didn't have to think about it. out of sight, out of mind, right? it was almost impossible to really put eden out of his mind, though. they shared many mutual friends, and kappa sigma and kappa kappa gamma were often hosting events or doing things together. still, he could try, couldn't he? try to get over her, as he had been trying for the last year, try to forget that he had loved her to the point that he thought they would be together forever. maybe it was naive of him to think that; he was barely twenty when they had broken up, far too young to be thinking about forever. still, there was something to be said for that, wasn't there? brennan had never had such strong feelings for anyone before eden, of course it was going to be hard to just let them go, like they had never mattered - like she had never mattered. he was doing a damn good job of acting like it, though, apparently. as eden seethed at him, brennan dropped his arms, wondering when he had become this person, especially with her. he didn't like being that sixteen year old douchebag again; it hurt him to know he was hurting her. but he couldn't stop. it was his way of dealing with it, and though he knew he had to stop, he just couldn't bring himself to do so. "well, congratulations, eden," brennan scathed, running a hand through his disheveled brown locks. "i'm glad you figured it out. now maybe both of us can move on and forget about any of this, yeah?" it was harsh - he knew that. he also knew he wouldn't forget quite so easily, but hey. if he was mean to her, maybe she would get over him, and he wouldn't feel like such a dickhead. silently, he oblied, stepping aside to let her pass. "i'll see you around, eden," brennan commented, voice softening. he didn't want her to go without apologizing to her first, but he couldn't form the words, so he simply let her walk by, eyes trained on the floor, ignoring the stares he was getting from his fellow students.
