Just Roll With It Stuff

macaroni nostalgia

How a simple art project could lead to Gill talking about the undersea for hours

or

A wholesome Gillion and Ollie interaction the world didn't need, but got anyways.
——

Today was a rather boring day. A simple day of sailing towards a city.

Like any boring day, people get bored, especially kids.

Ollie was especially bored that day, having absolutely nothing to do. He'd already played chess with Pretzel and lost by a landslide. He made juice with Old Man Earl, earlier that morning. So now he was just sitting in the kitchen aimlessly, swinging his legs back and forth.

This went on for a couple of minutes, until he saw a box of macaroni sitting in a cupboard. An idea had sparked.

He went to swipe the box of macaroni and went to check the expiration date. Lucky for him, they were expired, like a couple of years expired. Perfect for what he planned on doing.

He also sought out to find paper, glue, and some paint.
—
Ollie had always enjoyed arts and crafts, it was always something fun to do. So now here he was, making macaroni art.

It was a rather simple art project, just like the ones he did at school. He decided he was going to make a lovely sun out of the pasta.

He got around 25% of it done before Gillion came.

"Ollie, may I ask, what are you doing?" Gill's loud voice boomed.

"I'm doing arts and crafts." Ollie said as he glued another pasta to the page. "Wanna join?"

"Why I would love to dear Ollie!" Gillion sits down right across from Ollie. "Uh, what do I do?"

Ollie blinked. "Well first you take the macaroni," He shows a macaroni piece to Gill. "then glue it onto the paper, like so." He said as he glued it on. "You could make it into whatever shape you want and you can get as creative as you like!" The boy explained enthusiastically. "You could make a flower, a kite, a boat." He gestured to the ship. His words were cut off by loud crunching.

He looks up to see Gillion Tidestrider, munching on the expired box of macaroni.

"It's a bit on the dry end." The triton announced. "Needs a bit more moisture though. What do you think, Ollie?" He offered the box to Ollie.

Ollie stared in shock, wondering if this sight was really happening right in front of him. "Wait- Gill! You shouldn't eat that." He warned. "They're like, 4 years old!"

Gill looked confused. "Are these not edible?" He asked as he shook the box in his hand.

"No! Wait- but also yes!"

"I am more confused..." The triton said as he went for another handful of macaroni and tried to put it in his mouth.

"No, stop!" Ollie goes to smack the pasta out of his hand. "I can't finish my project if you eat all of it!" The half elf huffed. "Besides, there's more in the kitchen. Actually, you know what? I'll grab it myself." Ollie sighed, defeated by the fish's unintentional shenanigans.

—

When Ollie came back, he did not expect for 3/4 of the box to be empty. "Gill!"

"Oh welcome back Ollie. Say, did you know that they look like little shells." Gill showed Ollie a shell shaped pasta. "Look at them, they're so cute and tiny!" He cooed. "Did you know there's a similar shell back in the undersea where I live? It was a bright and vibrant purple, about the size of your hand." He estimated.

Ollie couldn't interrupt if he tried. The look of enthusiasm on Gill's face while he told stories about the undersea was much too hard to break. It didn't matter to Ollie though, he enjoyed listening to Gill ramble about the undersea for hours.

"The shell was located in the garden, just next to the..."

———

An hour passed and Ollie had finished his project. However, it didn't turn out to be a sun like how he originally hoped, instead, he'd found that he shaped it into a macaroni art of a seashell. A specific purple seashell, that a certain someone had rambled about.

Gillion, of course, didn't notice the art due to him talking about the undersea so passionately. So when Ollie showed him the finished product, tears pricked into his eyes.

"For you." Ollie simply said as he held the project with a smile.

The triton takes the project gingerly out of Ollie's hands, like if he was handed something fragile and didn't want it to break. "Thank you so much Ollie, I will take good care of this." He said softly.

Ollie then crashes into Gillion for a hug. "I'm sure you'll go back to the undersea! Then finally, you can see that shell once again!"

Gill smiled at the boy's hopefulness. "Yes! Soon, I will be Gillion Tidestrider, Champion of the Undersea, Hero of The Deep, and Shell Sea-er!"

———

The moon eventually came up and rose up from the sea as night approached.

If someone noticed a purple shell framed artwork hanging in Jay, Chip and Gill's room, no one said anything about it.