Fifth Floor Common Room, Tuesday evening

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

Bruce could be out of his room without feeling the need to find a more private place with the first person he saw. It was a good feeling. A good enough feeling that Bruce was willing to actually risk messing with the television in the common room again. But first? Threats.

"If you act up on me, I will end you," Bruce whispered while kneeling in front of the set. "There's a window right there. I will throw you out of it. You will be destroyed. And then I'll buy a new TV for the floor. I can afford something that will make you look like you're a black and white set. Nobody will miss you. So behave, or you'll force me to prove that I'm serious."

Bruce settled into a seat on the sofa and turned on PBS. It worked just fine. "I'm glad we could come to this arrangement," Bruce said with a bit of a smirk.

Good job badgering the inanimate object into working, Bruce.

[OOC: Much like the writing utensil I use exclusively for writing the third vowel, this post is open.]

Comments

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

Elphaba, Melena the droid baby in tow, arrived in the common room just in time to catch that last bit that Bruce had said.

"Arrangement with what?" she asked.

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"I'm not sure you really want to know," Bruce said. "How are you tonight?"

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"Other than having to take care of a fake baby, I'm rather well," Elphaba admitted. It'd be cliche and incorrect to say she had a new lease on life, but there was a teeny bit more confidence in how she projected herself. "I think I've made my first true friend since coming here, actually."

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"Motherhood tends to bring out the social side from what I understand," Bruce joked.

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"Yes. Melena is exactly the cause of it," Elphaba agreed with a chuckle. "Even if she a tik-tok abomination to Lurline. And I'm not even religious."

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"There's an anti-robot religion where you come from?" Bruce asked.

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"No," Elphaba said. "There's Tik-Tokism, of course, though it's more sort of... I don't know how to put it. But Lurline doesn't exactly hate tik-toks, as far as I know. These things just... give me the creeps."

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"If it eases your mind at all, Skywalker wouldn't give you anything dangerous," Bruce asked. "Just annoying."

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"Oh, I don't think it's dangerous," Elphaba said. "Just... it's like it's too much like a real child, but not enough like a machine."

Sadly that was the closest she could get to saying 'The Uncanny Valley factor'.

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"Trust me, it becomes much more like a machine if a monster breaks its neck," Bruce said. "Especially since the neck clicks a lot then. It ruins the illusion."

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

Elphaba raised an eyebrow. "You broke your fake child?"

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"No, a monster did," Bruce said. "They were all over the island, and the baby's mother was a bird."

It was a night for Bruce to say things that sounded insane, yes.

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"If I'd not seen first hand some of the stranger things on this island, I'd be asking you if you'd hit your head today," Elphaba said. "Did you fail the project?"

[shes-got-legs.livejournal.com]

"Elphaba, hello! How have you been?"

Ariel smiled at the other girl, remembering her even though she'd only talked to her probably once or twice. It was hard to forget someone after having to buy a green dress after talking to them.

And it was a nice dress, really...

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

Elphaba thought about that earnestly, instead of giving an off the cuff response. "I think I'm on doing quite well, actually. Minor recent embarrassment aside."

[shes-got-legs.livejournal.com]

"Minor?" asked Ariel, quirking an eyebrow.

That sounded like gossip. And sometimes, you couldn't help being intrigued by gossip.

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"I... was dangerously close to telling a boy I liked him," Elphaba said. "Which would have been foolish, and awful for our friendship, I think."

[shes-got-legs.livejournal.com]

"Really?" asked Ariel, definitely intrigued now because, if boys were involved, it was totally gossip. "You don't think he likes you back?"

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"He has a darling princess awaiting his rescue," Elphaba said. "At least, I think she is. I actually rather hope she isn't. Not that I don't wish them well, just I wouldn't wish needing rescue upon anyone."

[shes-got-legs.livejournal.com]

"But that is rather romantic, isn't it?" Ariel really couldn't help gushing a little. "Though I do see your point, too. I'd much rather be the rescuer than the rescuee."

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"Or for everyone to live sensibly enough that no one needs rescuing at all," Elphaba said. "But that's probably the fantasy version of life."

Or... the opposite.

[shes-got-legs.livejournal.com]

"Weeeeelll," Ariel sounded a little amused in her doubtfulness, "how about not in serious need of rescuing? Because it'd be a shame to lose that adventure, and a little bit of danger can be exciting."

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"A little excitement, perhaps," Elphaba allowed. "But perhaps... mutual danger. Fighting side by side. Equals."

[shes-got-legs.livejournal.com]

"Oooh, I like that!" Ariel admitted, but she wrinkled her nose slightly. "Though I'm not very good at fighting; I'd have to rely on my wits."

Which was better than it may have seemed, really!

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"There is more than one way to skin a gump," Elphaba said, then frowned. "That's an awful phrase, actually. I shouldn't use it. It's cruel to gumps."