Third Floor Common Room, Monday Afternoon

[catchmeifyoucan.livejournal.com]

A full month into his stay here at Fandom (yes, he was counting), Frank was officially certain of one thing: he had now explored the entire island, from Serendipity Place to Galactica Point, and could officially navigate his way around the place without the use of a map. He could even, if someone were to ask, provide directions from one place to another, and have them be not only correct but expedient.

Having learned that last part firsthand this morning, it was safe to say that he was really quite proud of himself.

To celebrate, he picked up some Chinese food (more than he could ever hope to consume in a single sitting), flopped down in front of the TV, and turned on some reality show where people complained in a courtroom.

This was a good day, Frank decided.

[[open like a common room!]]

Comments

[twintuitionist.livejournal.com]

Juliet followed her nose from her room to the Common Room. She wasn't usually big on the free food thing, but when it smelled this good...

"Hi," she said cheerily to the new(ish) guy then glanced to the TV. "Is that a divorce show, or a small claims show?"

[catchmeifyoucan.livejournal.com]

Frank turned, narrowly managing to rescue his take-out carton of chicken fried rice before it could spill everywhere. See how smooth he was? See it?

"I think it's a mix of both," he said, once he was satisfied that the carton was no longer perched so precariously as to be an issue. "So far I haven't noticed any actual divorces happening, but there's definitely a lot of people complaining about their spouses."

...

"Hi, by the way." Atta boy, Frank.

[twintuitionist.livejournal.com]

"Depressing," Juliet ruled, with a scrunched nose, and went over to gaze at the collection of take-out containers in hopes of an invitation. "Or is it scandalous enough to be interesting?"

She shot him a sidelong look over one shoulder as she added, "I didn't mean to make you spill, by the way. I'm Juliet."

[catchmeifyoucan.livejournal.com]

"Kind of," he admitted. "If you like watching people fight over weird stuff. One woman was complaining that her husband bought her the wrong shoes for their anniversary."

And now Frank was very, very glad that his parents were happily married, because really now. Some people.

"Oh, you can have some, if you want," he added with a nod toward the take-out cartons. "I'm Frank."

[twintuitionist.livejournal.com]

"Shoes are a tacky anniversary gift anyhow," Juliet decided, favoring Frank with a smile as she claimed a carton of chicken with cashews. "They're too practical. Suing over them..."

She shook her head, indicating it was beyond the pale, and took a seat.

[catchmeifyoucan.livejournal.com]

"I'll keep that in mind for the future?" Frank said with a grin. "Anyway, this one's kind of fun too. That guy there--" he pointed -- "is suing his neighbor because her kid is too loud."

Seriously, people were ridiculous.

[twintuitionist.livejournal.com]

Juliet looked thoughtful. "I think my father had our lawyer write a letter about a noise complaint once," she said. "But that was for a club that was open all night. And it was lame of him."

[catchmeifyoucan.livejournal.com]

"And I guess a club would be a bigger deal, anyway," Frank pointed out. "This is just the one kid. Plus it's hard to take him seriously when he keeps yelling like that."

[twintuitionist.livejournal.com]

Juliet winced. "Yeah, hard to believe he's not the real noise pollution in this situation. At least he looks dumb on TV."

[catchmeifyoucan.livejournal.com]

Frank grinned. "Yeah, definitely," he agreed. "There's no way he's gonna win this one. He's just yelling at this single mom that the judge obviously feels bad for. Plus he's not even dressed nice. You'd think if you were gonna sue someone, you'd at least wear a suit to the trial."

[twintuitionist.livejournal.com]

"Maybe he's trying to get everybody to feel sorry for him," Juliet suggested. "Like he's just some poor person who can't pay a fine. Or dress like a grown-up."

[catchmeifyoucan.livejournal.com]

"I guess that might work," Frank conceded. "If I were him, I'd still go with a strategy that would let me keep my dignity, though."

So... a suit. Frank really liked suits.

[twintuitionist.livejournal.com]

"Are you allowed to be dignified on a TV show like this?" Juliet wondered. "I think they screen for people who will make a huge scene on camera."

She shrugged, dug out a chunk of bell pepper with ehr chopsticks. "It's ... memorable."

[catchmeifyoucan.livejournal.com]

"...Good point." Oh, daytime TV. So special. "I don't know, man. I'm all for dramatics, but this is just embarrassing for these people. Make a scene on a normal reality show, at least."

Yes, that was his totally professional opinion. And yes, he was still watching. Shush, everyone was entitled to a TV-related guilty pleasure.

"We can change the channel if you want?" he offered.

[twintuitionist.livejournal.com]

"Or we could just talk, since you were nice enough to give me lunch," Juliet suggested. "You're new, right? How did you end up here?"

[catchmeifyoucan.livejournal.com]

Even better! Talking to a pretty girl always trumped TV, no matter how humorously bad it was. Sorry, weird court show, but you were totally getting muted.

"Yeah, I've only been here a month," Frank confirmed. "Mostly because it seemed like a nice change from my private school back home." No, it was because his family couldn't afford his old school anymore, but good try, Frank. "How about you?"

[twintuitionist.livejournal.com]

"About 18 months," Juliet said, and lowered her voice a bit as she leaned toward Frank. "My brother and I got asked to leave our school back in New York. This is supposed to 'straighten us out.'"

"Straighten us out" was totally in air quotes.

[catchmeifyoucan.livejournal.com]

"Whoa," Frank said, eyes widening just a little as he leaned in too. "That's kind of cool." Said the future con man, who was presently a guy who thought Britta Perry was a good role model. "What'd you guys do?"

[twintuitionist.livejournal.com]

"We promised never to tell anybody," Juliet said, eyes wide.

Or the players decided it was funnier and easier to leave it vague.

"I promise, we didn't kill anybody or anything. It was just a little ... difference of opinion."

[catchmeifyoucan.livejournal.com]

"Whoa," Frank said, suitably impressed. "That's awesome. So you guys are, like, actual rebels."

Frank had an... overly-romanticized view of civil disobedience. Even when what he was deeming to be civil disobedience was actually just garden-variety adolescent rule-breaking. Still counted.

[twintuitionist.livejournal.com]

"In a way," Juliet said, pinkening with false modesty. (Or they were overprivileged brats who tended to think rules didn't apply to them. Or possibly both.) "Are you ... into breaking the rules?"

[catchmeifyoucan.livejournal.com]

"Oh, are you kidding? Definitely," Frank said. "This one time at my old school, I pretended to be a substitute French teacher for over a week." He grinned, self-satisfied. "I guess you could call it a gift."

Or you could call the two of them teenagers with gigantic egos. One of those.

[twintuitionist.livejournal.com]

Juliet laughed in delight. "How did you pull that off?" she wanted to know. "And do you really speak French?"

[catchmeifyoucan.livejournal.com]

"Oh, I just wore suits and pretended to know what I was doing," he gloated easily. "I grew up speaking French 'cause my mom is from there. It was pretty easy."

And his dad had been impressed, so. There you go.

[twintuitionist.livejournal.com]

Juliet was impressed too. "You should try it here sometime," she decided. "I swear they let anybody teach. And there's the pony, but she's awesome."

[catchmeifyoucan.livejournal.com]

"Oh, I'd have to do something new and rule-breaky," Frank decided. "To keep it interesting." It was true, he had a terribly short attention span. "You could try something too."

They could be the world's least competent crime duo!

[twintuitionist.livejournal.com]

"Maybe, but I like keeping a low profile here," Juliet said. "Back home I'm kind of a big deal. Here it's nice to just ... be regular. Besides, they already gave me detention for no reason at all."

[catchmeifyoucan.livejournal.com]

"They did? That's... kind of strict," Frank said dubiously. "But I get what you mean about the blending in. This place makes it really easy, considering every third person's, like, magic or a superhero or something."

[twintuitionist.livejournal.com]

"Apparently they just do that once in a while," Juliet sighed. "Just round a few of us up, throw us in the goulash." (She meant gulag, and she had spent the day improvising a play, which was hardly hard labor to start with.)

"And I know what you mean," she sighed. "I'm pretty regular, if that helps. No weird magic."

[catchmeifyoucan.livejournal.com]

"Same," Frank said, completely undeterred by Juliet's little vocabulary flub. Probably because he didn't know either the word she'd said or the word she'd meant, so. "Except obviously for being really cool. Like superpowers-level cool." He smiled at Juliet, then added, "Which it looks like we have in common."

Frank, you were not good at flirting. You just weren't.

[twintuitionist.livejournal.com]

"Obviously," Juliet beamed back at him. "But that just goes without saying."

She thought being a little bad at flirting just made flirting cuter.

[catchmeifyoucan.livejournal.com]

"Because it's so obvious," Frank agreed. "Basically anyone could notice it. And it's actually even better than having normal superpowers, because you don't need a secret identity or anything. So go us."

Dork. Dork. Suuuuuch a dork.