Third Floor Common Room, Saturday Evening

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

There was a movie on TV. It was a truly, truly terrible movie called Karla Karen. And Wesley was watching it and eating crisps and contemplating the awfulness of what passed for entertainment in America.

The joke was on him, though, because the movie was Canadian. Silly Wes.

[open common room! because i am watching this movie. ETA: OH OH and trigger warning for the movie link. it's about a serial killer.]

Comments

[daventryprince.livejournal.com]

Alexander had little else to do right now, and he was feeling restless, besides, so he eventually wandered down the hall to see if anything engaging was happening in the common room.

"Oh, hello, Wesley," he said, tilting his head at the television. "What are you watching, and is it the sort of thing that would be much easier to handle if I grabbed ice cream before I sat down?"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"Hello," he said, distracted for a moment on a particularly disturbing scene. Then, snapping out of it: "And, er, no. I'm not sure it's the sort of movie to watch on a full stomach."

And yet. The crisps.

[daventryprince.livejournal.com]

There was a bit of a pause.

"Ah," he said. "One of..." Ahem. "Those movies." And now he was very actively trying to block out what he might overhear in addition to not looking at the screen. "That's...unfortunate."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"Yes," Wesley agreed. "Er. I could turn it off?"

He made no move to do so. It was kind of like watching a car crash or something, except he'd never watched one of those and it probably wouldn't be as disturbing.

[daventryprince.livejournal.com]

"...er, no need," Alexander said. "Especially not if you're already quite into it. I imagine it's probably one of those things that, no matter how bad it is, you still feel the need to finish it. I've...been...fortunate to experience a few of those films myself. I suppose I could always just bring some ice cream back to my room with me."

There was a pause, the sort that forced him to hear whatever horrible crap was on the screen.

"Er. A good book sounds very nice right now..."

Turn away now, Alexander! Before it ensnares you in its evil trap, too!

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

And then the guy on the screen was rapping, and Wesley was distracted for a moment, staring in horror at its awful awfulness. Finally he managed to tear his eyes away long enough to process whatever Alexander had said.

"Yes, ice cream and a book sounds nice," he agreed, with what could almost be described as motivation to do the same himself. But the rapping continued, and so did his fascination with the movie.

[daventryprince.livejournal.com]

It certainly did seem to have held a sway on Wesley. Alexander was tempted, out of that morbid perverseness inherent in all mankind, to glance at the screen, but, no! He must fight against it and not let it claim him.

"Yes," he repeated, going resolutely to the freezer. "I certainly hope we have some...ah, yes. Perfect. Surely no one will mind terribly if I were to have a bit of the rocky road."

Or maybe mint chocolate chip.

Or.....oooh, fudge ripple!

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

And then a shriek came from the screen as something big and dramatic happened. Very fortunately Unfortunatey, Wesley didn't see it because he was watching Alexander make his ice cream choice. He quickly looked back to the screen, but whatever had happened was over. It was for the best, really.

"I'm sure it'll be fine if you take some," he agreed absently, squinting at the screen again. Oh, god, the horror.

[daventryprince.livejournal.com]

"...Fudge ripple it is, then," Alexander decided, reaching for the carton and then heading to the drawer to swipe a spoon for the time being. "I shall let you get back to your...er...film, then. You'll have to let me know how it ends."

Did you really want to know, Alexander? DID YOU???

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

"Hey, Wesley," Quinn said, flipping a wave to Alexander as well as she went poking through the fridge on a search for diet coke. "What are you watching?"

It looked mesmerizingly awful, but the second she had seen might not be enough to judge.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"It's called Karen," Wesley said, turning around for a moment to look at Quinn. And then, in a moment of compassion: "I should warn you, it's not very good."

Oh, this was so not the movie for Quinn. So very not. Too bad Wes was too distracted to think that.

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

"It's a boring Saturday night. A bad movie beats no movie," Quinn decided lazily, flopping into a chair.

She may have been wrong in this particular case. She'd find out soon as ...

"What's he doing to that girl?"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Honestly, Wes wasn't even sure.

He also wasn't sure how this movie had managed to make it onto TV, jesus. Must be part of weird Fandom madness. Or someone mistakenly leaving a DVD in the DVD player, which oh god he hoped wasn't the case.

"Er. I -- I can't be certain," he said, tilting his head and squinting. "I should probably put something else on, yes?"

Yes.

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

"Unless you want everybody who wanders in to think you're a psycho, yeah," Quinn said, but she was rather clearly mesmerized. "This is gross."

It ... didn't sound entirely offended, if only because there was a certain car crash fascination.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"It is... quite gross," he agreed. Finally, with great reluctance, he picked up the remote and changed the channel.

Only the awful movie was playing on that channel too. And this time it was in Spanish. Dear god, what was happening to the Fandom TV circuits?!

"Do you want to pick something?" he asked, handing over the remote.

Chivalrous, this one.

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

"If the remote is too high-tech for you," Quinn snarked lightly, accepting the remote and flipping the channel to ...

"This looks like the same story. Wait, they made an anime version?"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

[[don't mind me, just rofling hysterically at that]]

Oh, god. That might be worse.

"Er," Wes said, squinting. And then something awful and violent happened, and gosh, violence was so much worse in anime form for some reason.

"I think you made it worse," he deadpanned.

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

Bruce wandered over to the common room after a day spent making some more slight adjustments to something that would in no way ever be used in a fight against crime, no sir, not at all.

"Evening. What's on?" he asked.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Oh god, another person to be subjected to this horrible film.

"It's called Karen," Wesley said helpfully.

The person on the screen was shrieking something that Wes really didn't think he'd ever heard on American television before.

"I don't reccomend it," he added.

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"Then why are you watching it, Wesley?" Bruce asked, raising an eyebrow at the screen.

Bruce realized that there were several completely justifiable reasons to watch a bad movie, up to and including the TV hating you. He just wanted to know if Wes had any of those.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"The telly's being rather stubborn," Wes announced. "I tried to change the channel, but it just gave me the same movie in claymation, and that was worse." And then in Latin, and then featuring a cast of well-recognized Disney stars, and then underwater. And every time he tried to turn it off, it got louder.

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"Congratulations. I may be the only person here who can actually empathize with you," Bruce said. "Although the fifth floor TV usually just keeps me from changing the channel."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Claymation was worse. There was nothing so traumatizing as watching someone get serial-killed in claymation. He would probably never watch another Pixar movie again.

"That's unfortunate," he said, demonstrating at least a little empathy. "Maybe if you tried, our bad luck might cancel out?"

He handed over the remote, but his eyes flicked back to the TV. He kind of did want to see the ending...

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"I suppose it's worth a shot," Bruce said, taking the remote.

Nothing happened when he hit the buttons. "No, I guess I just brought my luck with me."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Of course. It had probably been too much to hope for that the TV might take pity on him. After all, the movie wasn't done yet. And at claymation speed, it would probably take another two hours.

"Well, I suppose we might as well... watch," he said.

As if that was such a sacrifice.