Room 307, Monday Afternoon

[dollpocalypse]

So apparently the squirrels really liked Topher or something. Two radio broadcasts in three days. Seriously, he pretty much wanted them dead or something at this point. They were horrible, horrible creatures.

But in happier news, he'd finally finished his Christmas present for Tony and he had Billy coming over in a little bit to play video games. Both of which were good things.

There was nothing weird about taking a few seconds to organize his room before Billy showed up, right? Like moving some of the garbage off the floor and all that and organizing the bags of chips and video game controllers all in one place opposite the TV? That was just manners or something.

[[Oooopen, expecting three, Peter thread is last.]]

Comments

[selfhelphero]

Billy smiled and nodded. "Yeah, when you help someone who just got here get adjusted. Warn them about the gremlins and the vice principal and waking up as a little kid and stuff."

[dollpocalypse]

Topher snapped his fingers. "I should've said that!"

Poor Stacey. Poor, poor Stacey.

[selfhelphero]

"Should've said that to who?" Billy asked, his eyes going wider with realization. "Wait, did you have a little sibling?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Sadly, yes." Poor, poor Stacey. "I don't think she likes me."

A beat.

"Or penguins."

[selfhelphero]

Billy tried to make a sympathetic face, but it might have looked more concerned for Topher's poor, poor sibling. "You told her about the penguins though? That was helpful. Who knows if they'll come back," he said optimistically.

[dollpocalypse]

"I knoooow," Topher agreed. "I missed them! They were here and I wasn't and Tony told me about it after and now they totally have to come back!"

Topher just really, really liked penguins, okay?

[selfhelphero]

"What would you have done with the penguins if you'd been here?" Look, Topher liked to experiment with things, so it seemed like a good question to ask, for future reference involving adorable animals.

[dollpocalypse]

"Hung out with them! And stuff." Such a nerd. Suuuuch a nerd. "Did you see them? Were they awesome?"

[selfhelphero]

"They were seriously adorable," Billy said, smiling at Topher's answer. "They were following everyone around, and I'm assuming they all made it home safely because there's just no other option worth believing."

[dollpocalypse]

"Um, yeah," Topher agreed, eyes going a little wide. "Like, the world almost ending was one thing, but the island's not gonna hurt a bunch of penguins."

Topher had special priorities.

[selfhelphero]

They were adorable priorities though, from the way Billy was grinning. "I just hope none of them ran into the gremlins. If only it was colder around here, we could have actual penguins, and not randomly gifted ones."

[dollpocalypse]

"Oh, man," Topher said, grinning right back, "we should, like, find a way to go visit some. At the zoo or something. It'd be awesome."

[selfhelphero]

"And convince the people at the zoo to let us feed them?" Billy asked. "Throw them the fish or whatever?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Yes!" Topher exclaimed, eyes lighting up. Oh, Billy, look what you'd started. "Or -- okay, what if we went to see, like, real ones? Like, not in a zoo?"

[selfhelphero]

"You want to take a little trip to the South Pole?" Billy asked. Yeah, he wasn't sure what he'd started now, oops.

[dollpocalypse]

"They have penguins other places! South America and New Zealand and stuff!" Topher. Really now.

[selfhelphero]

Billy had to bite his lip to keep from snickering. "Okay, how about this? If you find penguins not in a zoo somewhere besides the South Pole, I'll go with you to see them."

[dollpocalypse]

Sure, snicker now, Billy. Just wait till Topher actually did it.

"Deal!" he exclaimed.