Third Floor Common Room, Friday Evening

[dollpocalypse]

So for the second year in forever, Topher... was not making it to Comic-Con. Which was traumatizing. Seriously, what was the point of being from L.A. if he didn't get to do his annual four-day trek to San Diego with a tent for camping out for panels, a backpack of inappropriate starches, and absolutely zero qualms about annoying people in front of him to the point that they left the line? Really now.

However. Despite that devastating setback sure to have long-lasting emotional ramifications on his psyche and nerd cred, he was able to tough it out to some degree thanks to the joy of technology. Like his laptop, which was open in front of him with about a zillion tabs open to various panel live feeds. And of course there was Tumblr, which never failed to catch all the really good quotes. Usually in GIF form.

Tumblr was the best.

So. With a few pizzas left out on the table to fill in for his usual high-cal SDCC snacks (and seriously, what was with the pizza place and delivering way more than he ordered? Not that Topher was complaining or anything), Operation: Make Like It's Comic-Con was underway.

Well. Comic-Con probably didn't permit wolf puppies like the one Topher had with him. But this was really really close.

[[open! PLEASE entertain me, i beg you.]]

Comments

[yinandyango.livejournal.com]

Things seemed particularly quiet around the dorms lately, which had Fawn wanting to test the waters of exploration, if only a little bit. She figured she could easily shrink and hide if need be, but she found herself on another floor, peeking into the common room, taking in a quick assessment.

So far, just a nerd, a computer, and the pervasive aroma of pizza. Which seemed harmless enough...

[dollpocalypse]

Ah, yes. Pizza: always harmless. And so was Topher! Really.

Also, there was a bridge for sale. It could get you riiiiight over the Causeway...

"Some people just shouldn't be allowed at the mic," Topher was muttering at the screen as yet another person wasted the miraculous opportunity that was a chance to ask a question of a panel. "Seriously."

When Ace-the-puppy nudged him, he took his eyes off the screen for a moment, glanced around the room, and observed, "Oh. A human." Quick pause to inhale a bite of pizza, then: "Hey."

[yinandyango.livejournal.com]

Fawn, who was likely to actually stand at the doorway until someone noticed her anyway, blinked at the boy and the computer and the pizza and the puppy for a moment before she said, "Hey. A...presumed fellow human. What are you doing?"

He looked...fairly settled in.

[dollpocalypse]

"Comic-Con," Topher said simply, which... was really not very simple at all, in terms of describing one's activities when one was clearly not, in fact, at Comic-Con, but rather sitting on his ass at boarding school in Maryland. However, he felt that that summed it up adequately.

...

"Want pizza?"

[yinandyango.livejournal.com]

Fawn considered the pizza, considered how bad it was for her, consider saying no, but then decided against all that. "Sure," she said, drifting over to grab a plate and a slice and claim a chair for herself, one that allowed her to sit and generally be awkward if she wanted to.

"What's Comic-Con?" she asked, with the decency to do so after she'd taken a bite, chewed, and swallowed.

[dollpocalypse]

Congratulations, Fawn. Now Topher was looking at you like he'd been mistaken after all, and you were not, in fact, a human, but an entirely separate lifeform, and possibly one with four heads.

"What's Comic-Con?" Yes, Topher, that was her question. "Only the most significant nerd gathering ever. It's in San Diego. Like, now."

And he was stuck here. Sigh.

[yinandyango.livejournal.com]

Well...two, at any rate, but that was just getting raunchy.

And Fawn was thinking of retracting her classification, too. This wasn't any nerd, it appeared, but quite possibly one of those of the genus Maximus Nerdamicus.

But maybe not so much, because her head tilted a little as she pointedly observed, "And you're here."

She figured the response to that could be pretty epic.

[ultron_junior]

"Hey," Victor said, with a tiny smile. Fawn seemed like she'd be good to be around if he was going to be a little fragile tonight. "How's ... life in general?"

[yinandyango.livejournal.com]

Fawn gave a slight smile back. Victor seemed like he'd be good to be around if she was going to be a little social tonight. "It's continuing," she noted, "which I guess could be interpreted a couple of ways. In general, though, I'd lean toward good. How 'bout you?"

[ultron_junior]

Victor seemed like he might be giving the question more thought than it deserved. "Also continuing," he finally decided. "I had to go home for a couple days. It got kind of weird. But I came back, so ... I guess the weird wasn't that bad."

[yinandyango.livejournal.com]

"How weird?" asked Fawn, after her brain went through several different scenarios of what it would be like to get a chance to go home, and deciding that she'd classify them all as pretty weird, too.

[ultron_junior]

Victor considered telling her, considered not telling her, and decided to just go for it.

"Aliens showed up and we had to fight them until one of my friends" -- and in the end Xavin was a friend -- "went home with them to settle things," he said, accurately if vaguely. "So ... normal weird for us, but still pretty freaking weird."

[yinandyango.livejournal.com]

And, two months ago, Fawn probably wouldn't have believed Victor, but an awful lot could happen in two months, apparently.

"Aliens showing up and fighting them until they accept one of your friends as sort of a hostage-tribute is normal weird for you?" she asked, wondering why everyone else in Freak School at least got interesting weird stuff, and all she got was extra bits and surprisingly prodigious siblings.

"Everyone else's worlds are so much more interesting than mine," she murmured, and it was hard to tell if she was more grateful or envious about that.

[ultron_junior]

Victor had mixed feelings about being social, but he'd already texted Nico just to make absolutely sure everything was still okay without him that she'd told him to turn off his phone. So he supposed talking to other people won out over hiding in his room for the night.

Also, there was pizza downstairs.

"Hey, Topher," he said, and snagged a slice. "Did I miss anything good?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Well," Topher said, taking a breath -- and then he proceeded to recite a full account of the day's events at San Diego Comic-Con, including, among other things, extensive focus on the happenings at the Lightning Bug panel, no small amount of stories on what had gone on over at Space Battles, and perhaps a surprising amount of detail on the events of the panel representing Adolescent Frankenstein.

Don't you judge.

"Oh," he added, "and a bunch of videos of people getting lost and crying in the hallways."

You could tell he enjoyed those maybe a lot.

[ultron_junior]

Victor blinked at him for a long, long moment before he put it together.

"Oh," he said. "Comic-Con. That's now."

He knew what it was, he loved the concept, he stalked it on the Internet when he could, but he hadn't exactly been paying close attention this week.

"Wait, people tape people getting lost and post it instead of helping them? And you watch them?"

You could tell he wasn't fond of that idea.

[dollpocalypse]

And silly Topher, absorbed as he was in his fake Comic-Con experience, hadn't realized that someone might be looking for updates on the outside world. As far as he was concerned, there was no news besides SDCC this week.

...It was possible that he had a problem.

"I might've... maybe glanced at one or two," he said, shifting his gaze slightly to the side. "They're mostly of the freaking out part, not the actual getting lost. I assume after they're done tantruming someone eventually helps them."

Possibly. Maybe. Topher wouldn't, but maybe there was a good samaritan or two somewhere at the con.

[ultron_junior]

"Huh. Okay." Victor still didn't like it, but his honest interest was limited. "So, things were quiet here? Or just ... not as interesting as Comic-Con?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Oh." So Victor had gone somewhere. "Yeah, no, not too much excitement here."

Right then.

"You went somewhere?"

[selfhelphero]

The smell of pizza drew Billy into the common room, but the sight of Topher was what made him stay. "I don't know if there's enough pizza here for everyone," he said, nudging a box.

[dollpocalypse]

"I can start a rationing system," Topher suggested, brightening a little at the sight of Billy. "Like, people I like get first pick. So you're up, obviously."

[selfhelphero]

"I like this plan already," Billy said, snagging a slice and sitting down next to Topher. "What are you watching--oooh Comic-Con feeds! I cannot wait until I'm an adult and can go."

[dollpocalypse]

"Or you could go next year, with me," Topher offered before he could think about it. "'Cause, you know, two years in a row of not going is totally enough for me. Next year, I'm gonna skip class for a week and just go."

[selfhelphero]

"My parents keep saying I can't go because it's all the way across the country and it isn't safe. That one guy stabbing someone last year totally didn't help," Billy said, looking annoyed. "But if I'm going with someone else...wait, have you been before?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Um, like five times," Topher bragged totally bragged. "It's, like, the only good thing about living in L.A." Uh... maybe not. "I could totally keep you from getting lost. Or stabbed. And if you did get stabbed, I'd definitely avenge you."

Wasn't he sweet?