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

[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.

[momslilassassin]

Ben grinned as he flopped onto the floor. "Well, technically Ender sniped you. I got Billy and Peter's ass."

[dollpocalypse]

Topher snorted. "Peter was not amused."

But Topher was.

[momslilassassin]

"Shockingly, I'm not going to lose a lot of sleep over that," Ben replied. "Your booby trap was pretty astral, too. That girl was really shrieky. And covered in paint."

[dollpocalypse]

"Oh, someone came by and got caught by it?" Topher asked eagerly, perking up. "I never came back to check. Was it awesome?"

[momslilassassin]

"Pretty much," Ben said gleefully. "She was in a white dress."

[dollpocalypse]

Topher cackled. Not at all like someone who would grow up to destroy the world. Shh.

"Nice," he said delightedly. "I'll tell Billy. He'll like that."

[momslilassassin]

"I'll bet," Ben said teasingly. "How's that going?"

[dollpocalypse]

Topher squinted. "Well I haven't told him yet."

[momslilassassin]

Ben floated Dave's pillow over to thwack Topher with. "The you and Billy thing, genius."

[dollpocalypse]

"Oh, that." That made more sense. "Um. It's okay. We hung out during paintball and that was cool."

Beat.

"And he... you know." He gestured wildly. "Like, kissed me earlier. So. That was a thing."

[momslilassassin]

Ben grinned at him. "Please tell me you didn't flail like that and hit him."

[dollpocalypse]

"If I did, he didn't say anything," Topher reported proudly. "So hopefully not."

[momslilassassin]

Ben beamed. "Good. Think you'll be doing that again maybe?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Maybe the next time I have a crappy birthday?" Topher said hopefully.

[momslilassassin]

There were a couple of pieces of information in that sentence. "It's your birthday? I'd think getting kissed would make it a pretty good birthday."

[dollpocalypse]

"Well that improved it," Topher confirmed, "but before that it was kind of not great."

Beat.

"And yes."

[momslilassassin]

"Happy birthday and what made it not great before Billy?" Ben asked.

[dollpocalypse]

See Topher fumble for words.

"I just. Uh. I know someone who went home?" he tried. "So. That was. You know. Kind of unpleasant."

Once again tripping over the fact that he only really knew a few people whose departure from Fandom would upset him, yes.

[momslilassassin]

Ben gave him a look. "Peter, right? I ran into someone earlier today."