3rd Floor Common Room, Friday Morning

[lockestheway]

And thus it was that on the fifth day, Peter Wiggin came rolling out of Casa Locke for reasons beyond going to class, though really, he'd only come back from Oz's class five minutes ago.

The reason was this: there were gremlins in his room making noise, and he found he couldn't concentrate on feeding new information into the Australian legislative bodies when there were little green things growling and whining their way through Have Yourself A Merry Little christmas.

So he had effectively been relegated to the couch, idly zapping through TV channels as he wondered why people wasted their time on asinine shit like this. Still, he was putting himself to the task of finding something that might attract the unwashed hordes (and keeping himself from thinking about Valentine leaving this weekend) so that at least his unwilling exile had some use.

Sadly, all the TV seemed willing to show today was reruns of reality shows... and The Wiggles.

The latter was the lesser of the two evils by a very small margin.

[[ open! ]]

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[dollpocalypse]

"There's gremlins in your room? Dude." Topher had yet to experience the joy of the all-gremlin caroling team soon to spread Christmas cheer to room 307. "How come you didn't just bring your desk in here to work?"

Perils of a secret identity, Toph. You wouldn't understand.

[lockestheway]

Peter gave it a shrug. "I've been catching up on a lot of work lately," he said. "I saw it as a sign from the heavens to catch some fresh air."

By walking all the way to the common room. You go, Peter.

[dollpocalypse]

Topher blinked. Then half-grinned a little.

Pointing to the window, he checked, "You... know the air's the same in here as in your room, right?"

[lockestheway]

"Hey, no one said I had to go crazy," Peter replied. "It's cold outside."

[dollpocalypse]

"Don't have to tell me twice," said Topher, who'd spent the better part of the past two days curled up in his new Iron Man snuggie. "Outside sucks. And there's a weird guy down in the lobby, so."

[lockestheway]

Peter squinted at him. "'Weird guy'?" he said. "You'll have to give me more than that, Toph ol' buddy."

[dollpocalypse]

"Some guy in a suit."

K was sure to be flattered by this description of him.

"Kind of old."

[lockestheway]

"Ri-i-i-ight," Peter said, raising an eyebrow. "And what is he doing there?"

[dollpocalypse]

"...I did not ask him."

Wasn't Topher helpful?

[lockestheway]

"So you went downstairs, saw the creepy guy, then ran back upstairs," Peter guessed. "Excellent recon job."

[dollpocalypse]

"Noooo," Topher corrected him. "I came back from class, saw the creepy guy, and then walked back upstairs."

Take that, Peter.

"Do you want me to go ask?" he asked with a sigh.

[lockestheway]

"Considering that I'm not even planning to go down there myself?" Peter mused. "Sure, why not."

[dollpocalypse]

Topher gave Peter an exasperated look, then went downstairs.

He returned five minutes later to report, "He's handing out packages."

And weren't their lives so much better now that they knew that? Nope. Not really at all.

[lockestheway]

Well, Peter's was. He was still getting over all the issues resulting from him having no control at all a week ago, and this was helping.

"Well, at least we know he won't be kidnapping anyone anytime soon," Peter said. "You're free to pass by Creepy Guy without fear."

[dollpocalypse]

"Unless Mr. Oz mailed us all explosives," Topher pointed out.

Topher Brink: Bringer of cheer for fifteen years now.

[lockestheway]

Peter paused.

"Fair point," he said.

[dollpocalypse]

"...do you think he'd do that?"

Probably.

[lockestheway]

"He... might," Peter admitted, then segued right onto, "I wonder what he's going to teach next term."

He could be teaching underwater knitting and Peter would probably still sign on, but still. Relevant question!

[dollpocalypse]

"How to be evil?" Topher guessed. "Could be fun."

Not that he would ever do that. No. Evil by omission only, that was the Topher way.

[lockestheway]

"Now, Topher," Peter chastised, "That would be unethical. And we know Professor Oz would never be unethical."

[dollpocalypse]

"...you were there that time with the baby noises, right?" Topher checked, side-eyeing Peter.

Also known as the day he had Suffered Horribly.

[lockestheway]

"A little aural torture never hurt anyone."

[dollpocalypse]

Topher blinked. "What?" Oh, aural. "Peter. Warren and I had to crawl out of the classroom to safety that day."

Well, Warren had walked.

[lockestheway]

Peter had totally used the word to get the double-take. Sometimes it was easy.

"Yes, I remember that," Peter said, snickering. "That was one speedy escape, Brink."

[dollpocalypse]

Sneaky, sneaky Peter.

"Hey. Hey. Like five hours before class I was drinking those apple martini thingies through a curly straw and throwing Warren at pig-shaped targets on the walls," Topher objected. "I think we can agree that managing any escape at all was a victory."