Laundry Room, Wednesday Afternoon

[dollpocalypse]

Topher was sitting on top of a laundry machine, flicking buttons and knobs while someone else's laundry was getting washed. It was a fairly simple mechanism, as far as he could tell. Not too complicated or anything. Of course, he'd never tried to use one. He wasn't particularly bothered with the idea of interrupting the cycle of whoever's clothes were being washed, because this was all in the name of science and it therefore trumped personal clothes-having. Naturally. 

Hmm. What would happen if he changed it from whites to colors? Well, only one way to find out, he guessed.

On the machine next to him, he'd laid out a series of fairly meticulously folded clothes. And one girl's shirt that did not belong to him and had a curious stain on it. You... probably didn't want to know what that was about.

No, really. You didn't.

[[Topher's here for Ben, but it's an open laundry room! And if you want it to be your character's clothes that he's messing up, that is all the funnier! Clothes owner has been arranged!]]

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[momslilassassin]

Ben wandered in a little while later with a basket of his own (mostly black) clothing and two giant bottles of Fabreeze. "Ho, Topher. Did you get started already?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Nope, just playing with the machine," Topher said. He was in the middle of a fun game he liked to call "adding detergent." He wasn't even positive it wassupposed to go in that little coin-shaped slot, but learning was fun!

"'Sup?"

[momslilassassin]

"Not much," Ben said. "I figured I should probably get this stuff clean before my dad shows up this weekend anyway...that's not where detergent goes."

[dollpocalypse]

"You know, I had a hunch," Topher said. That hunch was in part related to the fact that there was now a pool of detergent on the floor.

Worst genius ever.

"Is that the spray stuff?" he asked, nodding at the bottles.

[momslilassassin]

"It is!" Ben said. "Extra strength. I figured you didn't want to smell like vanilla and lavender."

[dollpocalypse]

That was true. He did not.

"Yeah, good call," Topher said, hopping down off the machine. "So... you think it'll have any effect on this?"

And he held up Kenzi's shirt. Which was stained and gross. You might not want to touch it, Ben.

[momslilassassin]

Ben wrinkled his nose up. "Maybe after it's been doused in detergent and cleaned a few times?" he suggested.

And possibly burned?

[dollpocalypse]

"But you said the spray is just like washing it," Topher pointed out. "So maybe it'll have an effect!"

He just didn't want to try to use the machine. He had a feeling he'd already destroyed the clothes that were in there.

[momslilassassin]

Eh, that was the peril of leaving clothing around.

And also why practically everything Ben owned was black.

He handed the bottle over. "Good luck. At least it'll smell better."

[dollpocalypse]

Topher took the bottle, shook it, and sprayed it on the shirt.

No effect. Shocking.

"Huh," he said, disappointed.

[momslilassassin]

"At least it smells better," Ben offered. "You can use it on your pillows and bedspread and stuff and never have to wash them!"

Ben had never heard of Martha Stewart, who was probably crying.

[dollpocalypse]

Topher had never had any intention of washing his pillows or his bedspread.

"Huh," he said again, squinting at the little bottle and the ingredients listed there. "I guess that'd be the hydroxypropyl at work. I'll give it a shot."

But that left a very serious question open.

"So how do I get this fixed?" he asked, pointing to the shirt again. It said a lot that he needed to take advice from someone who was from a whole different time period on something as routine as laundry.

[endsthegame]

A few minutes after that, Ender walked into the laundry room with a stack of his own clothes.

He glanced from Ben to Topher and back to Ben, made a quick mental calculation, spun on his heel, and walked out.

They weren't getting near his laundry.

[momslilassassin]

"Wimp!" Ben called good-naturedly after him.

[glacial_queen]

Karla sent most of her clothing off-island to be cleaned, but she had heard Ben's voice coming from the laundry room and decided to be nosy and bothersome.

She liked to play to her strengths.

Upon seeing Ben armed with Febreeze and Topher shoving detergent into what looked like not-a-detergent spot, there was only one thing she could possibly say to all of this.

"Hell's fire, Mother Night, and the Darkness have mercy."

[Slow & prone to vanishing due to Canadians!]

[dollpocalypse]

Topher looked up.

"Who are you?" he asked. Rudely, of course.

[glacial_queen]

Karla looked back. "Not a jackass. That makes one of us, apparently."

...Possibly untrue with an answer like that, Karla.

[dollpocalypse]

"You shouldn't call Ben names," Topher advised her. "He's sensitive."

[glacial_queen]

Karla snorted at that, breaking into a small smile. "Yeah, well, he's also used to me. I've been helping Ender deflate Ben's giant head since I got here."

[dollpocalypse]

"His head's not that big," Topher defended him. Or at least it sounded that way before he turned, tilted his head, and squinted at Ben. "Just slightly bigger than average, really. And weirdly oblong."

That's what she said!

[glacial_queen]

Karla was laughing now--and also peering at Ben's head, her head tilted the way Topher's was. "I don't know about slightly," she demurred. "And it's easily inflated."

[dollpocalypse]

Wow. Making someone laugh in a way that did not seem to indicate that a punch was imminent? That was new territory for Topher, really.

"How easily?" he wanted to know. "'Cause he's supposed to be teaching me how to do laundry. That gonna make him go dancing around like he owns the place?"

Oh, please, Topher, like anyone could be more arrogant than you.

[glacial_queen]

Yeah, well, Topher was making fun of Ben. That was a totally legitimate pastime. At least, until he crossed over some arbitrary line and Karla punched him for making Ben feel bad or something.

"Almost certainly," Karla replied with a solemn nod. "In his boxers and stocking feet."

[dollpocalypse]

"At least they'll be clean, I guess," Topher said with a weary sigh.

Although really, even that might be a bit much to hope for. This laundry process relied on them actually knowing what they were doing, see.

"Can't say the same for this person's stuff, though," he said somberly, patting the washer he'd been experimenting on. "Generally, when something starts bubbling, it's usually a bad sign." Generally.

[glacial_queen]

"Not always," Karla said reassuringly. "Sometimes when I'm cooking, stuff does that. But everything always turns out okay anyway."

It was possible Karla was delusional, yes.

"...Wait. I thought that was your stuff." Hadn't she seen him fiddling with that washer when she'd come in?