Room 307, Sunday Morning... Through Afternoon

[dollpocalypse]

So lately? Topher had been getting a little bit better at getting people. He wasn't great at it or anything, wasn't even really good, and still needed to ask a lot of questions, but at least by now he knew what to ask. And who to ask, and how to ask, and just generally the right way to figure things out.

Which he thought he had, yesterday. Figured stuff out, that was. Because... Billy. There had been Ben's advice and everyone else ever's implications and he'd been pretty sure he was right. Because of, like, the scientific method, where Ben and Kenzi and Tony and Peter and Ender were all test subjects and they'd all given him data to suggest that: yes, Billy was okay, Billy was cleared, he should try this with Billy, because it wasn't like he was ever going to get anywhere with anyone else this kind of thing made people happy, and Billy made Topher happy and maybe it would be a good thing. To try it. And he'd thought he was right. Been pretty sure, as a scientist, that his data proved his hypothesis.

Except he definitely had not been right, because he'd tried to do what everyone else thought he should do and wound up getting laughed at.

So. Fuck that. Fuck talking to people. Fuck going outside, too. Today he was buried under all his blankets and reading a comic and wondering why it wasn't helping him feel better yet.

Any second now.

[[door closed, post open, emo within]]

Comments

[lockestheway]

Xas had been... troubled, by his sudden appearance here. He did not recall the events that lead him here, and so he had simply moved silently around, passing from hall to hall and corridor to corridor. Perhaps he would find some meaning to his presence here - but he was already growing restless. Perhaps he would leave.

Eventually, he tried a door at random.

It was probably not a good thing that this was Topher's.

[dollpocalypse]

"What?" Topher yelled, rudely, from within his blanket cave.

Look, if he'd known it was Peter with wings, he probably would've been a bit more polite. And also a bit rolling-on-the-floor.

[lockestheway]

Xas blinked.

"Sorry," he said, as his wing inadvertently knocked the door further open. "I didn't mean to intrude."

[dollpocalypse]

Hang on. Topher knew that voice.

It had an accent, but he'd heard it accented before too. And he knew it either way.

Slowly, he pulled the blanket down just far enough under his eyes for him to see -- and then he stared.

And then he burst out laughing.

[lockestheway]

Xas looked... puzzled. He smiled along anyway. "Have I done something to amuse you?"

[dollpocalypse]

It was the existing that did it, really.

Too bad Topher was laughing too hard to answer for the moment. Hold on. Give him time.

"Wait, wait, wait," he managed to gasp after a minute or so. "You're -- you're--"

Nope, he had it right the first time. Laughing too hard to talk.

[lockestheway]

"I am..." he prompted, inclining his head.

And completely unaware of anyone else who might be making his way down the hallway right now.

[dollpocalypse]

Oh, if anything could salvage the crapfest that had been his life ever since he'd spoken to Billy last night, this was it. The laughing continued until his sides hurt, when he finally managed, "You have wings!"

Yes, Topher. Wings.

[endsthegame]

"Yes, he really does," Peter agreed.

He'd just been minding his business going through the hallway and trying to avoid anyone with obvious ties to Ender when suddenly there was a wing. In his face.

[lockestheway]

"Ah."

Xas stepped into the room, then turned around to face the other.

"Apologies. I don't have as much room as I'd wish for."

[endsthegame]

...

Peter stared.

"Now this is awkward."

[dollpocalypse]

Topher stared too. Stared a lot, actually.

"...whoa."

[endsthegame]

"And here I always thought Valentine was supposed to be the angelic one," Peter commented.

[momslilassassin]

Ben, realizing yesterday that it was going to be one of those weekends, decided to check in on people

Thus the knocking on Topher's door. "It's Ben," he said. "Um, normal Ben."

[dollpocalypse]

Topher thought about maybe emerging from his blanket cave. Buuuut he didn't. The emo was hard to give up, you see.

"Come in."

[momslilassassin]

Ben did so, then frowned. "Where are you? Were you still sleeping?"

Ben had been up for hours, but then Ben hadn't slept well and had also been avoiding his room.

[dollpocalypse]

"No," Topher mumbled, finally throwing the blanket off of him. "Hey."

He was clearly not in the happiest of moods. Be shocked, Ben.

[momslilassassin]

Ben frowned hard, then jumped to the wrong conclusion: "Did you meet the wrong Peter?"

[dollpocalypse]

Topher paused. "Well, yeah," he said, "but also I talked to Billy yesterday." Which was the source of his woe. So. Sorry about those askew priorities there, Ben.

[momslilassassin]

"It didn't go well?" Ben replied.

Empath, you know.

[dollpocalypse]

"He laughed in my face," Topher mumbled. "You said he liked me!"

[momslilassassin]

"Billy did that?" Ben gaped.

[dollpocalypse]

"Yes!" Keep up, Ben. Honestly now. "Why'd you let me do that?" he whined.

[momslilassassin]

Ben flailed. "I wasn't trying to set you up!" he said. "I'm not like Peter."

[dollpocalypse]

"Huh?" So confused, Ben, so confused. "Peter wasn't trying to--!"