Room 307, Tuesday Evening

[dollpocalypse]

So for Topher, today had been noteworthy due to a variety of circumstances, the most obvious of which being:

1.) His best friend was apparently a world-famous political blogger who'd saved a whole bunch of kids' lives
2.) Said best friend had just been forced to go into hiding to avoid being killed by a Belgian psychopath
3.) Topher's room was still full of paint fumes, and
4.) It was his sixteenth birthday.

As a result of all of that, plus the portal-lag that came from the round-trip excursion to Peter's universe, Topher was just a little bit exhausted by the time he got back to his room in the evening. Too exhausted, in fact, to indulge in his usual birthday tradition of a cupcake and a couple rounds of laser tag at the nearest arena. So instead, by the time he got to his room, he flopped down on his bed to try to repress concerns about Peter by playing Tetris on his phone.

At least he was kicking ass at it, so, you know, there was that.

[[open! billy | dave | kenzi | ben ]]

Comments

[selfhelphero]

One of the nice things that went with being a good student who rarely got into trouble was that when Billy wanted to know someone's birthday, the people in the office were usually willing to give it to him. Topher's birthday was one of the ones he'd made sure to find out, so when the evening rolled around, he made his way down to Topher's room with a small box, and knocked on the door.

[dollpocalypse]

Topher looked up.

Topher contemplated the inherent sacrifices involved in pausing his game.

Topher decided it was probably worth it.

"Come in?"

[selfhelphero]

Billy pushed the door open a little and peered inside. "Hey, can I come in?" he asked. "Or are you busy? I can come back later."

[dollpocalypse]

"Oh!" Yeah, if it was Billy, ut was totally worth pausing the game. Topher put down his phone, which was good, because one of the T-shaped blocks was about to descend and he had nowhere to put it. "Hey. Um. Hi. No, I'm not busy. Just, uh--" quick, sheepish grin-- "Tetris."

[selfhelphero]

"Ah, Tetris is still awesome," Billy said in approval as he came in, awkwardly trying to hide the box behind his back. "So, um, I wanted to say happy birthday. Unless you don't like birthdays, I mean." He probably should have thought about that before now.

[dollpocalypse]

...Billy, how were you so adorable? How???

"...oh," Topher said, blushing a little. Look, he hadn't expected anyone to know that it was his birthday, let alone acknowledge it. "Thanks. I, uh. Didn't realize people, you know. Knew about it. I mean. Thanks."

Yeah, Topher, you'd said that already. And that giant grin made you look like a dork.

[selfhelphero]

"I asked in the office," Billy said, finally producing the box and offering it to Topher as he felt like a very, very good person. "I didn't want to miss your day if I could help it."

[iwishiwasbig.livejournal.com]

After his evening coffee run, Dave returned to the room. With coffee. Of course.

"Welcome back, Topher," he said. "What're you playing? Stargate Defender?"

That wasn't on phones, Dave.

[dollpocalypse]

"Tetris," Topher corrected him. "Fewer aliens, more blocks."

What, so he remembered the game from that ship that time.

[iwishiwasbig.livejournal.com]

"Sounds like it's still technically ahead of my time," Dave said. "I'm sure I'll get addicted to it eventually."

[dollpocalypse]

"Wanna try?" Topher offered, in a rare moment of generosity.

And then his phone was sailing across the room over to Dave.

[iwishiwasbig.livejournal.com]

Dave ducked. "If the phone's not broken, I guess."

He picked the phone up and brought it back over to Topher to confirm that it was still working.

[dollpocalypse]

Topher poked the touchscreen. It... responded to being touchscreened.

"Pfft," he said, passing it back. "It's fine."

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Kenzi had no idea it was his birthday. And she had other things to talk about. But she had brought Mountain Dew and a bottle of booze.

"So... that happened."

NFB

[dollpocalypse]

Topher was still a little too weirded out for booze. But he scooted backwards on his bed to make room (and to check that the hallway was clear of squirrels), because wow did he want to talk about that right now.

"Yuh-huh," he affirmed, setting his phone down.

Re: NFB

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Kenzi had already given them the *other* bottle of booze.

She handed over the Mountain Dew and said, "So, did you expect any of that? 'Cause I'm..." Yeah.

Re: NFB

[dollpocalypse]

"The part about him being him or the part about whatshisface being an asshole?"

Re: NFB

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"Him being him, because I don't think anybody could've predicted that kid would be such a pain in the ass," Kenzi said, cracking open her bottle. "What the hell, future people. If that's what being in military academy does to little kids, they need to re-think their strategies."

Re: NFB

[dollpocalypse]

"It might be person-specific," Topher offered with half a shrug. "Ender's not that bad."

"But Peter... I mean, that explains a couple things. Not that I would've guessed. I mean, 'cause weird."

[momslilassassin]

Ben poked his head into the room. "Hey," he said. "Peter's not a fox still, right?"

[dollpocalypse]

If Topher was on edge, it... well, it showed. Because he was, a little.

Look, he wasn't used to having to choose his words particularly carefully, but after today, he really, really had to.

"Noooo," he said carefully after a minute of... looking a little shifty. "He's. No. Nuh-uh."

[momslilassassin]

Ben arched up an eyebrow. "Have you seen him today?"

Trained cop, Topher. Be afraid.

[dollpocalypse]

...

"Yeeeees."

Damn it, this was hard. Damn Ben and his judgey eyes that made it look like he could see into your soul.

[momslilassassin]

"Can I come in then?" Ben asked. "You look a little...twitchy."

[dollpocalypse]

...

"Suuuure."

Yes, Ben. Very, very twitchy.

"So... you guys sniped me!" Excellent segue, Topher. Rly. Two thumbs up.