Room 307, Sunday Morning

[dollpocalypse]

All things considered, there had been worse weeks on this island than just being monochromatic and really really boring. However, most of the other weeks hadn't involved being so mean to Billy (and Topher did realize that he'd been mean to Billy, whether it'd been intentional on other!him's part or not), so this one pretty much ranked as an awkward one.

Plus he was pretty damn sore from all the jogging other!him had been doing, so. There was that as well.

He mulled it over for a moment or two, decided that it was almost definitely excusable in the long run, then settled on his bed with Broca II in his lap and put on a movie on one of his laptops. Meanwhile, he took out his iPad and idly coded while the movie was playing. He wasn't sure what he was doing yet, but so far it had 'this island is batshit' written in binary, so that was a good start.

[[open!]]

Comments

[dollpocalypse]

"Yeah, Billy wanted to come meet my parents, so me too, probably." Unless he could talk Billy out of that clearly horrible idea, of course. "So yeah. We can grab a common room sometime and get people to come play. It'll be funtimes."

[ultron_junior]

"Tomorrow?" Victor suggested, with a little shrug. "Wednesday?"

He took a few more steps in, leaned against Topher's desk. "Good luck with the meeting the parents thing. Think they'll like Billy?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Wednesday after gym class would work," Topher decided. "And... hard to say. I don't really, like, talk to my parents, because they are morons, so. Who knows? Not me."

The fact that this might be a weird thing to say to a guy whose mother had died not too long ago didn't really register, nope.

"Think you're ever gonna meet Onion's parents?"

[ultron_junior]

"We haven't had a chance to talk about break yet, but Olive's parents were here for parent's weekend." Note the subtle correction. "Her dad was kind of ... off-kilter and intense."

He glanced over, frowning. "Do I want to know why your parents are morons?"

[dollpocalypse]

"They're just all into books and newspapers and not doing math," Topher dismissed with a wave of his hand. "I sometimes do their taxes."

Poorly, but at least the math was right!

"Intense like movie dads, with the whole 'you hurt my daughter and blah blah blah I have a pointy rake' type thing?" Topher wasn't great at coming up with threatening lines, even when he was assigning them to other people. "...That probably isn't the best threat, you could just... magnet the flat end of the rake to your face or something..."

Yeah, he'd managed to distract himself.

[ultron_junior]

"But then I'd have a rake attached to my face," Victor pointed out. "Actually wait, that might be sort of cool for about ten minutes."

"Anyhow," he added, "her dad was nice? He just ... put me sort of off balance. I think he could tell I was into her, or something, and ... it was a weird conversation. Maybe the next one would be less uncomfortable."

[dollpocalypse]

"Rake Face," Topher said thoughtfully. "Could be your superhero name."

That was possibly the worst superhero name ever thought up. Seriously.

"Hopefully my parents won't be too weird at Billy," he added. "Or do the song-and-dance of 'Oh my god, our kid actually has a friend.' Did your mom ever do that? Super annoying."

That was probably a more specific issue, Topher.

[ultron_junior]

"And yours could be Dragon Rider," Victor suggested, since they seemed to be coming up with the worst superhero names ever. "And ... no? I mean, she had a whole thing about me not spending too much time around bad influences, but she didn't like freak out I had friends."

[dollpocalypse]

"Sounds kind of... anime," Topher evaluated. "Not bad."

If he was going to be a hero, he'd do it in a world full of tentacles and disproportionately-sized eyeballs, dammit.

As for the having-friends part... "Huh. Maybe that's just a me thing." Yes, Topher. It probably was.

[ultron_junior]

"Sorry," Victor said, and cleared his throat in embarrassment. "So do they know you and Billy are like ... kissing?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Huh. Good question." Topher thought about that one for a moment or two before ultimately deciding, "Nope. Nope, pretty sure they don't."

Because that would require him to talk to them.

The awkwardness of the situation, however, was completely lost on him. Whoops.

[ultron_junior]

Victor squinted, wondering if Topher intended to go on. "Were you going to tell them? I mean, it's your business, but..."

[dollpocalypse]

Topher squinted right back. "I don't... think so," he said slowly. "Why, do you think it's relevant?"

Oh god, Topher.

[ultron_junior]

Victor went pink. "I ... think it's the type of thing parents usually want to know? But I don't know your parents, and I'm not dating guys, so --"

So, this was awkward.

"You don't have to?"

[dollpocalypse]

Poor, poor Victor.

"I don't think they'll care that he's a guy," Topher said thoughtfully, but he was headtilting enough that even that was suspicious. "I just don't usually tell them, like, anything. One time I asked for a new phone because mine got stolen by these steampunk spider things, and I just said I dropped it in some sewer grates."

That... really wasn't the same thing, Topher.

[ultron_junior]

"Well, yeah, if you told parents everything they'd never let you stay here," Victor said. "I mean, I edit and my normal life's insane too."

He chewed on a thumbnail for a moment. "Have you met Billy's parents?"

[dollpocalypse]

"I met his brother?" Topher offered, fiddling a bit with Broca's tail. "And his world's versions of Tony and Captain America, but that was mostly by mistake. But his parents, no. I'm not sure if he talks to them or if there was some kind of, like, season-two-finale-of-Wendy situation after finding out he was a superhero, or something."

That seemed like the kind of thing he should probably find out, actually.

[ultron_junior]

"Might be a sore subject, yeah," Victor had to admit. "It's weird, I don't think there are too many people here who have parents they talk to a lot."

[dollpocalypse]

"Yeah, and Parents' Weekend is always more people our age than actual parents," Topher agreed. "Or sometimes adults who maddeningly refuse to say who they're related to, which is actually somewhat creepy and wow I wish I'd mentioned that to the weird guy who was talking about AI rules and not who he was visiting."

Okay then.

"So wait, do you think Billy is, like, expecting my parents to know we're dating each other?"

[ultron_junior]

"Probably he was here to see GLADoS," Victor speculated. "Or Liara. They're all AI-obsessed back in her world."

He was a tiny bit bitter, and so overlooking the obvious.

"And, uh. Probably? Or at least I would, but I'm not Billy. Ask him."

[dollpocalypse]

"Nah, I can't see GLaDOS having friends," Topher dismissed, before promptly moving on to, "Wait, so you're saying that movies have lied to me and communication in a relationship is a good thing?"

[ultron_junior]

"... I cannot tell if that is sarcastic or not."

[dollpocalypse]

"...In that case, I take it back," Topher decided, which probably gave Victor all the answer he needed. "Alrighty then. Good to know."