Second Floor Common Room, Wednesday Evening

[stringstothesoul]

Erasmus had ordered Chinese takeout for dinner, but the delivery guy had brought...way too much. Like, way too much. So he'd decided to eat in the common room, where maybe he could foist some off on someone else, and there was always the refrigerator for leftovers.

While he shoved fried rice and mushroom chicken into his mouth, he'd started flipping idly through the channels on the TV, and wow, this dimension's TV programming was weird. Where were all the nonhumans? Where was that popular crime drama about a warlock detective and his vampire partner, who the whole internet agreed should make out and Erasmus totally hadn't written half a fanfic about, really, he swore? Where was--wait. He flipped back a channel.

"Oh, thank Gaia, Interspecies Habitat." A popular home design show about refitting homes to suit the needs of romantic partners from two very different species? He'd take it. This week's pair were a siren and a yeti, so it ought to be interesting.

(Open common room is open!)

Comments

[mindofageneration]

Riri nodded along like Fairy Court made perfect sense. She was honestly just picturing Judge Judy with pointy ears and Tinker Bell wings.

"Is this a special channel or something?"

No, just the whimsy of the place!

[stringstothesoul]

"No, I just..." Erasmus gestured to the TV. "Found it. I was looking for, uh, a different show, but I can't find it. Everything else is just humans."

[mindofageneration]

The look Riri gave him implied that was kind of the norm for her. But she'd let it slide. "Do they have any of those baking shows?"

[stringstothesoul]

"Probably," Erasmus said, and offered her the remote in case she wanted to look for one.

[mindofageneration]

"Those are always good to relax to," she said, flipping to see if Chopped was on. Or Fantasy Chopped. Maybe that existed.

[stringstothesoul]

It was just called Chopped, Riri. The 'Fantasy' part was implied by how one of the chefs was usually an ogre or something. "If you say so," he said. "I never was much for those. Probably because I can't cook." That didn't have to stop you judging the participants intensely, Erasmus.

[mindofageneration]

"I can microwave things," Riri said with a shrug. "It's not about knowing cooking or anything. It's pretending to be the expert for an hour. Like playing a video game."

[stringstothesoul]

"I mean, even I know that anchovies and raspberries don't belong together," Erasmus said. "Not for human judges, anyway."

[mindofageneration]

"...what judges would that work for?" Genuine question here!

[stringstothesoul]

"Trolls, probably," Erasmus said. "Some of your more aquatic species, too."

[mindofageneration]

"You're adding all that to the board," Riri informed him with a lazy wave of her chopsticks.

[stringstothesoul]

"Why would that go on the board?" Erasmus asked, confused. "That's just normal stuff." He lived in a proper society, Riri.

[mindofageneration]

"So, if I were to tell you that an alien portal opened up over New York City when I was a kid and for real aliens from space attacked, what would you say?" she asked.

[stringstothesoul]

"'Are you sure your universe doesn't have the fae?'" Erasmus said, only about half joking.

[mindofageneration]

"I'm pretty sure there are elves? I think I saw something about it on tiktok once. But that's some kind of Asgard thing."

Excuse you, Riri. It was New Asgard.

[stringstothesoul]

"Where I'm from 'elves' is kind of derogatory," Erasmus told her, as he'd told Arden a week ago. "The fae are very serious about names."

[mindofageneration]

"See, this is why I wanted it on the board," Riri said. "Because that's not a thing back home for me. If there are fae or whatever? We don't know about them other than the Asgard stuff."