Room 307, Monday Evening

[dollpocalypse]

After an hour and twenty-five minutes spent trying to trace a text message that had just come in on his phone, Topher was forced to conclude two things: one, it was legit, and two, he sort of wanted to crawl under his bed and never come out ever again.

But there were bags of chips under his bed and he really didn't want to find out if the chips had rodent friends down there, so he had to settle for burrowing under the blankets instead, laptop open in front of him as he vengefully and imprecisely shot at zombies in a video game.

Like this weekend hadn't been bad enough. Like he hadn't gotten a stupid (albeit newly vanished) haircut and a hangover. Like he hadn't made a total moron out of himself in front of Ben and Jello Girl and Peter, then hurt his hand making the world's shittiest piece of technology. Now he'd done something to piss Tony off too, and -- here was the kicker -- he didn't even know what it was. Because Tony already knew about that stupid fanfiction story that that bitch Karla had told everyone about, and he hadn't been mad at him after the whole lap-sitting thing on Thursday night, and their encounter as kids on Saturday hadn't been too horrible, and nothing bad had happened in frat, so... what was it?

For a second, he wondered if maybe Kenzi had said something... but they weren't close, were they? He dismissed the idea and shot furiously at zombies. The volume was up ridiculously high, but he wasn't too bothered by the noise of the explosions right now. Or the gore. Even the stuff that normally squicked him out was fine.

[[Door closed, post wide open. This kid. So much emo.]]

Comments

[lockestheway]

"I don't know, build something useful? Get mad! Make life take the lemons BACK! This is just stupid." Yeah okay definitely projecting.

[dollpocalypse]

Topher just blinked at him. Yeah, not following this at all.

[lockestheway]

"Oh, whatever," Peter said, finally. "The next time you go drinking, you're coming with me."

Peter would be drinking super-adventurous Virgin Marys.

[dollpocalypse]

"Don't wanna go drinking anymore," Topher whined mumbled. "Just want to kill zombies."

Which was... at least sort of productive. Since the zombies were evil.

[lockestheway]

"Well, you don't need me for that," Peter commented. "I can go and leave you to your zombies if you want."

It wasn't like he wasn't drowning in work, god, Topher.

[dollpocalypse]

Topher certainly didn't want that, and it was obvious in his expression for a second. Then he just averted his eyes.

"Whatever," he mumbled.

[lockestheway]

"Going once," Peter said, "Going twice..."

Look, he was fine and if your sister ran out on you you'd need validation too.

[dollpocalypse]

Topher stared down at his bracelet, rotated it around on his hand a few times, then said very, very quietly, "Don't."

If Peter told him to speak up, he might get ragey.

[lockestheway]

No, he'd heard that fine. Validation, and all that.

"Fine," Peter said, and took royal advantage of his new invite to collapse back on the bed. "But I don't do the zombie-killing thing."

[dollpocalypse]

Topher flopped onto his back and stared up at the ceiling. Because when he emo'd, he did it right, damnit.

"So... what's up with you?"

[lockestheway]

"Me?"

Did you have six hours, Topher?

"Nothing much."

Oh, come on, Peter. You could lie better than that.

[dollpocalypse]

"No boring politic-y stuff?"

That was almost disappointing. He really, really wanted a distraction right now.

[lockestheway]

"Wow, now I feel really good about my own hobbies," Peter said, pulling a face. "But no, nothing new under the sun. Except, have I told you I'm about to become an only child?"

... Too many secrets lodged up in his head screaming to get out. He was going to blame that part. And also the projecting.

[dollpocalypse]

Quietly, in case Peter was being serious, Topher said, "I was kidding."

He couldn't really afford to alienate any other friends right now.

"But -- wait, what? Why?" Big puppy eyes! Puppy eyes of sincere concern!

[lockestheway]

"Dear sweet baby Valentine's decided to go play house with my brother on a colony somewhere," Peter said cheerfully. "Good riddance, eh?"

[dollpocalypse]

That, on top of everything else, was enough to Really Piss Him Off. Topher's eyes flashed with anger.

"What a bitch," he snapped. "Didn't you just go get her out of trouble, too? Who just does that?"

[lockestheway]

"I've been hauling her out of trouble and backing her up her entire life!" Sorry, Topher, but now he had a stage to chew the carpet on. "But she'd rather go spend her time cuddling with Enderpoo. Except Enderpoo as she knew him doesn't even exist anymore."

[dollpocalypse]

Topher just stared in disgust. "What the hell," he muttered. Then, more loudly: "What the fuck is wrong with people?"

Asked the sociopath to his power-hungry BFF.

[lockestheway]

"Right?!" Peter exclaimed. "They're all a bunch of selfish fools with absolutely no sense of perspective!"

Said, yes, the megalomaniac who'd been plotting to take over the world for the past few years.

[dollpocalypse]

"Even if you're nice to them!" Topher put in, getting more and more angry about this. "Even if you're never nice to anyone and you really, really try to make them like you!"

[lockestheway]

"We're the kind ones," Peter informed him. "If they want to rot, it's not our fault."

[dollpocalypse]

"Yeah!" Topher exclaimed.

Except, well.

"I mean, I dunno," he amended, mellowing a little. "He's still awesome."

[lockestheway]

"Tony Stark is just a teenage kid who tries to be nice and occasionally fails horrendously," Peter said, picking up Topher's phone and holding it up. "And don't let me get started on my sister."

He missed her, that was the problem. He'd missed her since May.

[dollpocalypse]

Topher didn't want to get into the details behind his feelings, even if they were right at the forefront of his mind: Tony was brave and smart and let him hang around and he had a shiny lab filled with stuff that he didn't mind letting Topher look at. And he was great in bed.

"Your sister sucks," he muttered. "You're awesome. Who doesn't want to hang out with you?"

[lockestheway]

All the people who'd rather be hanging out with Ender.

He almost said it. But that would make him sound like a worse down-on-his-luck whiny loser than... well, than Topher. "Like I said," he said, "Her loss, right?"