Stark Industries | Saturday

[dollpocalypse]

So apparently Portalocity sucked, but that wasn't enough for Topher's parents to let him stay at school for Thanksgiving. He'd been hoping they would decide it wasn't worth the risk of him getting lost on some other planet somewhere, but halfway through his shift today he got the e-ticket in his email. Ugh.

So the absolute best way to deal with that was, naturally, to fix the nearest big metal thing he could find. Hooray for working through frustration!

Comments

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Kenzi breezed in before lunchtime, with a shopping bag in one hand and a Mountain Dew in the other. "Hey, dude."

[dollpocalypse]

Topher looked up. "Hey."

Then back to tech. How very pleasant of you, Topher.

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"I know you're all working and shit," Kenzi said, poking the Mountain Dew over to him. "But this is way late, and I owe you an apology."

[dollpocalypse]

"You do?"

Attention span. He had one.

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Kenzi grinned. "I almost don't want to tell you if you've totally spaced it, but... what the hell." She started taking stuff out of the shopping bag. "I shouldn't have told Peter about the online thing. I mean, he's your friend too, so the torture would be minimal, but. Still not cool."

A thing (http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/cubegoodies/8cff/), another thing (http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/e659/), and a thing that she didn't know what it did (http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/9558/) were laid on the counter. "It won't happen again."

[dollpocalypse]

And suddenly Kenzi had a very excited Topher on her hands. Abandoning the equipment he was working on, he scrambled over the counter to see what she'd brought.

"Dude!" he exclaimed, pointing from the first thing to Kenzi to the present again. "You -- and -- dude! Awesome!"

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Heeeee. Kenzi beamed and leaned over, poking at stuff. "I picked up this one at a Sharper Image, and this one at some electronics store... what is this last thing? It looked all funky, and it was--" Small enough to grab. "Looked expensive."

[dollpocalypse]

"It's a spectrum analyzer!" He was way too excited about this, yes. Maybe she could tell from the flailing. "You can, like, detect network interference and measure signals and this is so cool! I mean, I made one, but it's not anywhere near as powerful as this one probably is. And it'll draw graphs and everything!"

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"Graphs yay," Kenzi cheered, smirking. "I did good? Yay!" She started playing with the USB robot thing. "And I'm sorry little-me freaked little-you out, but dude, I wasn't even trying. What was that about?"

[dollpocalypse]

Topher didn't even look up from poring over the spectrum analyzer manual as he reached out to try to(playfully) yank the USB robot back. That was his toy, damnit.

Then he processed that and looked up, tilting his head. "Wait, huh?"

Evidently, he lacked Kenzi's powers of miniature facial recognition.

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Kenzi had also double-checked with the Radio, just to be sure she'd guessed right. "The roof, last Sunday. Girl in a tutu. That was me. Risking death by rooftop up there." She tugged in the robot, wondering it if would come apart.

[dollpocalypse]

"Oh." He tried to picture the tutu girl, then shrugged. "Yeah, looked like you."

Not that he'd noticed. Chalk it up to the almost being paralyzed by fear.

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Another tug, then Kenzi switched over to the other toy. "Why were you so wigged out?" Mostly just confused, since she hadn't even been trying to scare him.

[momslilassassin]

"Hey," Ben said, poking his head into the shop. "Did I leave my backpack in here?"

[dollpocalypse]

Topher glanced up from the fridge he was working on. "Maybe?"

Look at him being all helpful.

[momslilassassin]

"I was a little distracted," Ben explained, leaning over the counter and pulling it out. "There! What's wrong with the fridge?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Clogged evaporator," Topher reported, prodding away at the machinery with his head inside the fridge. Because that was totally safe. "Distracted how?"

[momslilassassin]

"Stuff," Ben said usefully. "Portalocity's being a pain."

[dollpocalypse]

"Seriously," he agreed emphatically. "I can't believe my parents are still making me come home for Thanksgiving. I could end up in some other galaxy or something!"

Or bang his head on the top of the fridge. Which he did. Oops.

"Ow," Topher grumbled.

[momslilassassin]

"A galaxy without turkey, even," Ben agreed. "Ender's trying to get his sister to visit now."

[dollpocalypse]

"Huh." There was a pause, which he spent tinkering away with wires, and then: "Wouldn't that be, like, kinda weird?"

[momslilassassin]

"Val visiting or a place without turkey?" Ben asked.

[dollpocalypse]

"Val."

A beat.

"I pretty much just eat stuffing and cranberry sauce anyway. So."

[momslilassassin]

"People are disappearing in Ender's world and he'd rather Val not be one of them," Ben replied. "Peter can deal."

[dollpocalypse]

"Wait, disappearing disappearing?" Topher checked, retreating from the fridge to look at Ben. Because there were so many other kinds of disappearing that it could be. "How do you mean?"