Third Floor Common Room, Thursday Evening

[dollpocalypse]

It was possible that the TV thought it was funny. It was also possible that the TV didn't think at all, which was, in Topher's opinion, the more likely option.

In either case, tonight all it seemed willing to show was the critically-reviled horror trilogy My GF's A Zombie. The first movie was pretty much exactly what it sounded like, but its sequels, My Psycho Ex Is A Zombie and Is Zombie Marriage Even Legal? were... well, also exactly what they sounded like.

The first movie was playing while Topher got up to get some popcorn, providing the microwave noises with a lovely soundtrack consisting of the titular zombie girlfriend pleading with her boyfriend to take her to prom. Topher just... didn't even know.

He'd actually made no effort to turn it off or change the channel, but whether that was because he was too used to the TV not cooperating or because he actually enjoyed the movie was anybody's guess, really.

Comments

[ultron_junior]

Victor had spent most of the evening with his mother, which had been amazing in about 72 different ways, but eventually she enforced his curfew and shooed him back to the dorms.

He managed not to point out he'd gotten by without a curfew for almost 18 months. The truth was, seeing her again was pretty intense: He could use some room to clear his head.

He flopped onto the couch when he spotted Topher, not really noticing the ironic programming on the TV. "Dude, my mom is visiting."

[dollpocalypse]

Topher was halfway to offering Victor some popcorn before he paused. "Wait, what?"

Topher was not going to point out your mom was dead, Victor. Yet, anyway. But he was thinking it.

[ultron_junior]

"The island decided to bring dead people back for a couple days," Victor said, since he was going to point out the thing Topher wasn't pointing out. "It's weird. She's so mom-like."

[dollpocalypse]

"It didn't bring back my dead turtle from fourth grade," Topher objected, looking a bit hurt. Way to fail, island. "Was she not mom-like before? And also, are you okay?"

Those sentences were definitely organized by a very special set of priorities there.

[ultron_junior]

"Did you want your dead turtle back?"

Victor's answer also came from a special set of priorities. "And she is a fantastic mom, always has been. And yeah, I'm fine. It's just" -- he groped at the air as if that meat something, settled on, "intense."

[dollpocalypse]

"Probably not," Topher admitted. "My parents aren't here to clean its excrement, so nah." That was charming. "So... this is awkward, but are you sure she's not... evil?"

[ultron_junior]

"Oh, no, I held the evilometer up to her and it didn't beep," Victor said sarcastically. (He'd been a little worried about it too, but he couldn't believe evil would make him soup.)

He tilted his head to see the TV, where the zombie girlfriend had started twisting off her boyfriend's fingers. "Are we actually watching a zombie movie while we have this conversation?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Oh, it's the good kind of zombie movie," Topher assured him. "The guy is trying to dump her and she's all crazy and undead and... I'm scared to try to change the channel in case we all turn black-and-white again."

[ultron_junior]

"And it's not like my mom tried to eat my brains, so the zombie thing doesn't really apply," Victor reasoned. "Seriously, she looked awesome for being dead. Like they have fancy moisturizer in Heaven."

[hawkeye-too.livejournal.com]

"Hey Victor," Kate said, giving him a half-wave. "Tell me you're not engrossed in terrible movies too."

[ultron_junior]

"Hey Kate," Victor returned. "I was actually telling Topher about how, um -- this is going to sound like a bad joke but I promise it isn't -- my mother's back from the dead for the weekend."

[hawkeye-too.livejournal.com]

"Uh." Kate stared at him. "Is this a timeline thing or something?"

Did Nate come back and fuck with the timestream again? Because she was going to kick his ass.

[ultron_junior]

"Island thing," Victor said. "There was something about a stone and dreaming and ... I kind of decided to call it magic and leave it at that."

[hawkeye-too.livejournal.com]

"That's -" incredibly weird. Kate shook her head then smiled at him. "- pretty damn cool."

She paused then added. "I hope?"

[ultron_junior]

"Definitely damn cool," Victor said emphatically. "Not anything I ever expected -- I mean, I thought she was, y'know, for-real dead" -- as opposed to superhero dead, yes -- "But she was an amazing mom. It's weird that she got like a hall pass from the afterlife, but I'll take it."

[hawkeye-too.livejournal.com]

"Who wouldn't?" she asked, her smile faltering for a beat. Couldn't there have been enough hall passes to go around?

"So what are you going to do with your Mom? Other than hope you don't wake up a girl tomorrow," she asked, warmly curious.

[ultron_junior]

"Hoping the island stays relatively normal is on the list, yeah," Victor nodded seriously. "And she wants to take me shopping because she thinks I'm going to freeze to death. And we're supposed to have coffee with Olive tomorrow. Besides that, I guess we're just sort of going with the flow?"

[hawkeye-too.livejournal.com]

Kate was lured into the Common Room through the smell of popcorn more than any interest in the movie content.

"Why do you watch terrible things on the tv?" Kate asked. Seriously, fish, zombies, what next?

[dollpocalypse]

"This isn't terrible," Topher objected. "It's the heartwarming story of a guy trying to break up with a psychopath."

That was in no way true.

[hawkeye-too.livejournal.com]

She eyed him. "In what way is that heartwarming?" Because...

[dollpocalypse]

"She literally tries to set his heart on fire at the end of movie two," Topher shared. "Do you want to see that part? I could rewatch it."

[hawkeye-too.livejournal.com]

"Just his heart?" Kate asked. "Because how does she avoid the rest of his ribcage."

Stop thinking so much here, Kate.

[dollpocalypse]

"Well, that's why she wasn't successful," Topher explained. "Are you going to be one of those high-maintenance movie-watchers who asks like nine million questions instead of looking it up on Wikipedia on your phone like a normal person?"

[hawkeye-too.livejournal.com]

"It's a definite possibility," Kate said. "More likely that I'm just going to point out when the movie's ridiculous."

[dollpocalypse]

On the screen, the zombie girlfriend was trying to break into her boyfriend's car with a small zombie cat.

Topher turned to Kate to see whether she thought this was ridiculous or not.