5th Floor Common Room, Tuesday Evening

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

... There was a third Cactibear movie.

Toby didn't even know why the first two movies existed, let alone a third. There was a Cactibear trilogy. Which Toby was watching because apparently he was unable to look away. It was like a trainwreck. A horribly murderous mutant part-bear-part-cactus trainwreck.

At least there was also popcorn?

Comments

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

Also a Stephanie, who was going to take the opportunity to mooch food in common rooms while she still could. She wouldn't be living on campus at Gotham U, after all.

"Ohmygod, there's another one of those?"

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

"That," Toby said with a sharp nod, "is exactly what I said."

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

"Can you imagine what would happen if the people who make these movies knew about this place?" asked Stephanie, flopping onto the couch (but not before snagging a handful of popcorn).

". . . actually I worry less about that than about Fandom getting ideas from these movies." Hurr hurr.

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

"What if the people who write these movies are actually former students?" Toby pondered.

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

"And they're being careful to not get too autobiographical?" Stephanie tossed a popcorn kernel in the air and . . . bounced it off her nose. Oops. "Maybe we should hit up IMDB. Unless they're writing under pen names."

Occasional casual detective-ing was fun.

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

Toby totally didn't snicker at the missed catch. Nope. "Which you'd totally try to trace back to real names," Toby pointed out, because he's met Stephanie, yes.

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

"A girl has to have her hobbies, thank you very much," Stephanie said, failing to look indignant. "And it's not as creepy as it sounds!"

It kind of was. Because Batman trained and all.

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

"Uh huh," Toby said mock-solemnly. As if the telepath had any moral high ground here.

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

You're one to talk, Stephanie thought at him, but she was smirking just a bit.

"I'm not going to hack into databases looking for it or anything," she pointed out, which was mostly because her hacking abilities were still awful. "If Google fails me, I'll consider it a sign."

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

Toby just stuck his tongue out at her in response. "Fair enough," he admitted after a moment. "So... are you ready to go back to a place where this stuff's fictional?" he asked. Not that Gotham wasn't without its own brand of weirdness, given that it had costumed superheroes, but... there was weird and then there was Fandom.

[notapredator.livejournal.com]

"Does everyone know about this except for me?" Mira checked. "I'm pretty sure the answer is yes, so I'm not offended, I promise."

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

"It's burned into my memory from the last time I stumbled into a common room unaware and encountered one of these movies," Stephanie told her, shrugging. "But there are only three of them, and statistically the odds are . . ."

Oof, mental math.

". . . well, there's a lot more chance for you to not have seen them before."

She swiped another handful of popcorn for herself. "If you're worried about cultured entertainment, you didn't miss much. Hilarity, on the other hand."

[notapredator.livejournal.com]

"I've never considered myself too cultured, but I'm apparently classier than I thought," Mira joked.

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

"Sure you don't mind hanging out in the gutter with the rest of us, then?" asked Stephanie. "It is a drainage ditch with snacks, at least."

[notapredator.livejournal.com]

"The smell reminds me of home, so I can slum it for a while," Mira promised.

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

Stephanie's eyebrows lifted just a bit in curiosity. "You speak of it so fondly."

[notapredator.livejournal.com]

"Well, Nar Shaddaa's not a bad place if you don't mind the crime. And the smell. Mostly the crime, though," Mira said. "But it always gave me something to do, so yeah, I'm reasonably fond."

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

"Because it's home." Stephanie nodded. "I'm that way about Gotham. Sure, I complain, but it's affectionate complaining."

[wasthecuteone]

Petra stood in the doorway, blinking at the TV, for a few moments before she sighed, "I'm gonna miss this place," and stepped the rest of the way into the room. "Is there food?"

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

"I dunno, do popcorn and Smarties count as food?" Toby asked.

For the record, they were the chocolate Smarties, not the chalky candy kind.

[wasthecuteone]

"Technically," Petra admitted. "Do we have any chocolate?"

Look, she didn't speak Canadian.

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

"Canadian Smarties are totally chocolate," Toby informed her, tilting the bowl so she could see them, mixed in with the popcorn.

[wasthecuteone]

"Okay, Canada does it better," Petra declared, reaching over to delicately grab a piece of popcorn from the bowl. If Toby minded, she figured he would tell her to stop. "I might order real food in a little bit. You want anything specific, or should I just order some egg rolls and see what shows up?"

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

"Honestly?" Toby shrugged. "I'm good with 'anything that can't also be cooked over a campfire'." S'mores and hotdogs were delicious, but there was such a thing as oversaturation, and he'd reached that point about halfway through the second camping session.

[wasthecuteone]

"Ugh, don't remind me," Petra said. "I have issues. Although they're more seafood-related, to be fair..." She would have killed for a hot dog on the island.

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

"I think it'll be at least a month before I can even contemplate anything containing marshmallows again," Toby admitted.

[wasthecuteone]

"But the chocolate's fine? What am I saying?" Petra asked herself. "Chocolate's always fine."

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

"It's basically a food group," Toby said with a nod. "And personally speaking, my marshmallow expertise ends at Rice Krispie Squares and s'mores. I can do way more with chocolate."

[notapredator.livejournal.com]

"Are you really going to miss this place because of bad movies, or are you just saying that?" Mira checked. "You can tell me the truth, I promise I won't tattle."

[wasthecuteone]

"I'm gonna miss knowing I can wander down the hall and there'll be something completely ridiculous on the TV," Petra told her. "It's comforting. And entertainment, all in one."

[notapredator.livejournal.com]

"That's fair. I'll give you that one," Mira noted. "Are you one of the graduates, or are you just tired of Fandom except for the TV choices?"

[wasthecuteone]

"Graduate," Petra said. "Hi, I'm Petra. It's okay if you don't remember it, I'll be gone in a few days anyway. And you must be pretty new?"

[notapredator.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I'm new, but you can call me Mira," said said. "Just came in mid-summer."

[notapredator.livejournal.com]

Mira was making the rounds of the dorms tonight to see if there was anything interesting going on. When she got to the fifth floor, she looked at the TV, then at the people, then back at the TV, and finally decided that the people might be interesting.

What? Like a cactus-bear hybrid was that weird compared to some of the animals in a galaxy far, far away. "Anything interesting happening?"

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

"Cactibear has apparently moved on from killing base jumpers to killing parasailers," Toby informed Mira.

[notapredator.livejournal.com]

"I only understood about half the words in that sentence," Mira stated. "Any chance you can break it down a little more?"

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

"Okay, so that's Cactibear," Toby said, pointing out the murderous mutant cactus-bear on screen. "In the first two movies, he mostly went after base jumpers- people who jumped off buildings for fun. Now he's going after people who are, well- doing that," he noted as the scene changed to a bunch of teenagers setting out on a boat.

[notapredator.livejournal.com]

"Gotcha," Mira said, nodding. "I'm sorry, but this seems terrible, even though I've only been watching it for like 20 seconds."

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

"It's totally terrible," Toby agreed with a grin. "That's basically the appeal."

[notapredator.livejournal.com]

"You guys have weird hobbies on this planet," Mira pointed out. "Which I assume you know. But I'm making sure you know that I know it, too."

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

"I bet there's totally people from... wherever you're from... who get a kick out of watching bad fiction too," Toby mused.

[notapredator.livejournal.com]

"I doubt that," Mira said. "Bootlegging bad fiction for sale on other planets, sure, but that's just because bootleggers on Nar Shaddaa care more about quantity than quality."

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

"I find that hard to believe," Toby said, shaking his head. "Surely if bad fiction exists, someone out there is making fun of it."

[notapredator.livejournal.com]

"You're overestimate how much time people on Nar Shaddaa spend with fiction. Why do that when they can steal, or assassinate someone, or steal?" Mira asked.

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

Toby'd done his fair share of stealing and running cons, and while he had to admit there was a certain rush that came with pulling off a job, it wasn't really his go-to form of entertainment (unlike some people, Kenzi). "Sounds like a real fun place," he said, raising one eyebrow dubiously.