Third Floor Common Room, Late Saturday Night

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

It had been a terribly long day, but Eleanor couldn't sleep. The excitement from traveling five time zones and four decades, perhaps, or the nervous energy from not being on the run for the first time in days. She wasn't sure how to relax, and had wandered into some sort of communal space.

She hadn't watched television in years, although she hadn't realized the surface had quite so many channels. There had to be something on, with this many channels, didn't there?

And so, it was around midnight, and Eleanor Lamb was watching a program quite inexplicably titled OCTO ER. It seemed to be fashioned around the lives and times of a number of cepholopods working in a deep marine emergency room, though the plot seemed less concerned with medical emergencies than it did which octopodes were having carnal relations with each other.

Octopodes? Octopi? Maybe she'd wait for the show to mention it, and see which term was canonical.

(SO SO OPEN. Someone teach this girl that soapy dramas require popcorn! OCTO ER 4EVA. Idea hatched from a particularly hilarious typo to furnaceface back in, erm, October.)

Comments

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

Wandering the halls because you're bored and looking for something to do was a little hard when you were on crutches, but the new place deserved exploring.

"That's something pretty special, right there," Joker said, a little fascinated by the show. "I wonder what you have to be high on to come up with something like this?"

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

"I'm not sure why they set it in a hospital," Eleanor said, scrunching her face up thoughtfully. "We haven't been inside the hospital for nearly twenty minutes. It's mostly been about the blue-ring's love triangle."

She said this rather matter-of-factly for someone who'd only been watching the show for two episodes.

... What? It was a marathon.

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

"I... don't even want to think about how a love triangle might work. I mean, seriously. I had a friend who tried to draw diagrams explaining how Hanar mate, once, and I just could not even."

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

"I think octopi lay eggs," she said. "Octopodes?"

Huh. Neither sounded right out loud.

"Are Hanar aliens?" she asked. "I met my first alien today. He's my roommate."

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

"'Octopuses'. Pretty sure. The old Greek plurals just make things confusing."

Not that Joker knew for certain. There certainly weren't a lot of octop[?] in space.

"You... don't know what Hanar are? Flying glowing jellyfish? Talk like they're sharing the secrets of the universe, even when they're just asking if you want fries with that?"

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

"I'm from the year 1968, and I've never left this planet before," Eleanor said. That seemed like it would help matters considerably. She might start announcing that to people straightaway. "Why would I want fries with that?"

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

Joker blinked. "You... Yeah, we'll go with that, sure. You'd want fries with that because fries are awesome." He frowned, confused. "Did they not have fast food in 1968?"

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

"I don't know for sure," Eleanor said. "I grew up somewhere a bit out of the way. We didn't have a great number of things. There seem to be a number of commercials for fast food, during this program."

It was making her hungry.

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

"There always are," Joker acknowledged. "And it always looks so good. ...Man, we're in the middle of nowhere, aren't we? What do you think the odds of the local places being open now are?"

[genesishero]

Evan had filled up on food from the picnic table today early on, and so he'd really only had one meal so far today. And then he'd packed up his excited, exhausted dog and taken him back to his room to sleep, and while he was there he managed to get distracted by a book he'd picked up at work on Tuesday, and... well... If it was half-past-late and he still hadn't eaten more than one meal today, at least it was half-past-late and so the common room had to be fairly quiet, right?

Right?

"Oh!" Live the dream, Evan. "... Nobody minds if I use the microwave, right? It might be a little noisy while you're watching TV."

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

Eleanor glanced up, and did a double-take, but a small one. Her roommate was some sort of alien; this boy just had dramatic markings on his face. She supposed one got used to it very quickly.

"I can't say I mind, but I don't know what that is," Eleanor said cheerfully. "I just came in to watch the television myself. If I'm not supposed to be here, tell me, I can go."

She wouldn't know what happened to the Cuttlefish, but she could live with that. Mostly.

[genesishero]

"It's fine," Evan promised. "You have just as much right to be here as I do. I was just going to heat up some food and be on my way."

He opened the fridge and started poking through its contents. He had some leftover soup in here somewhere...

"... Is there anything good on?"

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

"I don't know if I'd call it good," Eleanor said, "but I'm watching something about marine cephalopods operating some kind of hospital, and I can't seem to stop watching it."

It wasn't Shakespeare, or Marlowe, but she really was curious about whether or not the reef squid had survived the marlin attack.

[genesishero]

"... Cephalopods in a hospital? How is that even..."

He was going to have to abandon his soup quest for a moment to look back over at the screen.

"Is that a cuttlefish wearing scrubs?"

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

"He's the attending," Eleanor said easily. "He keeps getting passed over for promotion, so he's started building up resentment. And he suspects the blue-ring octopus of cheating on him, but really, she's just busy with work."

[genesishero]

"Then he should know better," Evan reasoned, locating his soup at last and setting it down on the counter. "The hours that people in medical professions are expected to work are long and exhausting. When would she have time to cheat on him?"

You know... as an octopus and all.

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

"She doesn't," Eleanor said emphatically. "She gives of herself tirelessly to this hospital. It's taking such a toll on her. They're starting to draw in dark bags under her eyes. And still he has to be jealous. It's not becoming in the least."

[genesishero]

"He sounds totally horrible, considering he's got 'cuddle' right there in his name," Evan noted. "Does she at least have friends?"

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

"Of course not!" Joker told him with a wave. "Microwave it up, over there...?" That pause was supposed to be filled with Evan supplying his name, but unfortunately it also included Joker getting a good look at him. "Whoa, makeup!"

[genesishero]

Welcome to another fun-filled new semester at Fandom High, Evan! He took the exclamation more or less in stride, glancing at Joker with a slightly strained smile.

"It's Evan. And I think you mean, 'Whoa, skin.'" He held up his free hand, showing off the same pale blue-white as the flesh on his face. "I actually look like this."

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

Joker frowned, internally kicking himself. "Sorry, my bad. I'm Jeff -- Joker -- but that wasn't a joke, it was... I'm sorry." He held his arms open wide, metaphorically leaving his chest open for a punch. "You get one free go at my legs. Do your worst."

[genesishero]

Oh, you didn't want Evan to do his worst, Joker. The island wouldn't survive.

"I actually don't like hitting all that much," he replied, his expression softening a little at the peace offering. He could imagine just what a statement like that must have meant to the other boy, drawing Evan's attention to the braces there. "How about I just microwave twice as much, and we'll call it even? If I make popcorn, it'll be extra noisy."

Evan's nefarious revenge.

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

"Whoa! No hitting! I meant wisecracks, only!" Joker insisted, visibly nervous. "Seriously, not even a little -- I break easy! Buuuuuut... Popcorn is an agreeable substitute. I accept."

[genesishero]

"I'm even worse at wisecracks," Evan replied, biting his lip. "But no hitting, I promise."

He went for a quick rummage through the cupboards, surfacing with a bag of microwaveable popcorn. "There are a few left in here, I think. Popcorn for everyone, maybe? Should I melt extra butter?"

They were spoiled for choice!

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

"That depends. Do you mean real butter, margarine, or an artificial substitute made from cornstarch, unpronounceable chemicals, and the dying dreams of cuisine-deprived orphans?"

In some respects, the future wasn't all that different.