Second Floor Common Room, Wednesday Evening

[wantstodirect]

Tony wasn't aware of the movie showing at the gym and so didn't have to make the heart-wrenching choice between Space Battles and Lee Nicholas.

Yes, it was Wednesday at 9 pm, time for Darkest Night again. This week, Raymond Dark and his mortal sidekick James Taylor Grant would uncover an ancient conspiracy of cartographers. Tony had popcorn and soda.

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[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

He nodded almost too fast.

"I saw the battle with the peppers," he said cheerfully. "That was the first one. Then the one with the salmon. There was one I couldn't watch," the piglet battle, for reasons he didn't want to think on "but I'm sure it was fine. The Chinese chef tends to be more impressive than people expect."

He turned his head to glance at the screen.

"What's this, then?"

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"This is the show I worked on this summer. It's about a vampire detective," Tony said. "Please don't judge all TV based on this."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

He raised an eyebrow.

"I'll try my best. Though I don't see why you think I wouldn't like it, other than the obvious."

Really, he grew up reading romance novels. As long as no one does anything disturbing with a Horse, he'll be all right.

[wantstodirect]

"It's not actually all that good," Tony admitted. And Liir should be glad, then, that the writers were talked out of doing the Catherine the Great episode.

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"What's good?" he asked with a shrug.

"As long as it keeps people entertained for as long as it takes, then it's worth something. Anything beyond that is fluff."

[wantstodirect]

"A lot of shows that keep people entertained are ones I'd consider fluff," Tony said.

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"Well, I can't say until I see it," he admitted.

"And I'm sure your mark is on it somewhere."

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"I painted that wall," Tony said, pointing to the screen, which showed the cartographer's den of evil. "Next to the tropical fish tank."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

He grinned.

"It's a very nice fish tank. We had a fishwell but that was quite another thing entirely."

And it spoke to his comfort with the other boy that he could mention it without twitching.

[wantstodirect]

"What's a fish well?" Tony asked. His mind had jumped to "inkwells" but that probably wasn't related.

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"A well kept at the base of the keep where fish could be kept fresh. They'd flow in from the mountain streams at times. Some of them... remarkably big."

The great goldfish flashed into his memory and he pushed it away. She had no power, not now, and never really.

[wantstodirect]

"Sounds useful," Tony said. "Fish tanks like that," he nodded at the screen, "are mainly decorative. That one ended up in the producer's office after it was used on the show."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"Animals kept for decoration?"

Well, he'd seen something like that in the Emerald City. That poor Tiger chained up in front of the manor house...

At least there were no Fish to his knowledge.

"Useful enough," he said, moving on quickly, "not my favorite place, really."

[wantstodirect]

"They're kind of like pets, but a fish isn't really much of a pet, so they're mostly just there to be pretty," Tony said.

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

He shrugged.

"I've never seen anything particularly pretty about a fish, but I suppose to each their own."

As the land of Oz was landlocked, he'd never seen any of the fantastic fish found in coral reefs or anysuch.

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"There's some really pretty tropical ones," Tony said. "Crazy bright colors."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"Oh?"

That would be pretty.

"With bright scales?"

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Tony nodded. "All kinds of colours and patterns. Colours you'd never expect to see on something natural."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

'I'll have to look for a book to see," he said as he settled in to look at the screen.

"Could you explain this? What-- who the players are in this?"

[wantstodirect]

"Do you want to know about the actors or the characters?" Tony asked.

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"Whichever you think is important," he said with a shrug.

Then he smiled at Tony.

"I will trust in your expertise."

[wantstodirect]

"I'll start with the characters, then," Tony smiled. "The blond guy is Raymond Dark. He's a vampire and a private detective. His mortal sidekick is James Taylor Grant. Together, they solve mysteries and fight evil."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"Mysteries. Like... who killed someone? Or a missing person? Or something important stolen?"

It wasn't an area of literature he'd really dipped into much.

"Well, that sounds interesting enough."

[wantstodirect]

"Yeah, like that," Tony said. "Usually there's a dead body at the beginning of the show and they figure out by the end what supernatual creature or event caused it."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"Supernatural creatures? You mean, anything besides normal animals... like a red pfenix or a unicorn or somesuch?"

Beat.

"Though obviously nothing so nice."