Fandom Island Gazette, Friday

[whatdattonguedotho]

Eddie had started this week off hopefully to get out and drum up some advertising for the paper. Mostly so people knew it existed.

But instead, he'd been lured into the records room. And it had been... a bit of a time suck as he caught up on some of the news of the island. Everything from vampires to gnome theft.

"And you guys sold no papers?" he asked, side-eying a deer as it lurked by the coffee pot.

It just made a disgruntled deer noise back at him, somehow producing a full coffee cup when he'd looked away for five seconds.

"Okay, we'll. Uh. Work on that."

Step one was going out to local businesses. Maybe he should make a list of them...

[very open business]

Comments

[okteiviakom]

Octavia was just dropping in to see if he'd died or left yet.

The takeaway coffee in her hand was a cinnamon something-or-other that probably explained why she was actually out and about. Or at least it did so if you didn't happen to know she often patrolled the island for no visible reason at all.

"You're still here." She wasn't even surprised, she just continued to be terrible at greetings.

[whatdattonguedotho]

"I'm still here," he agreed, more than happy to see a non-deer face.

[okteiviakom]

High praise, Brock. High praise.

"How's it been?"

[whatdattonguedotho]

It was his life now!

"Apparently this place travelled through space?" And that was a thing? A normal thing???

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's deadpan was honestly made for this place.

"Probably," she said, a little more dry and raspy on that one word than necessary. She took a sip from her cup. "I mean, not while I've been here, but I know the people from the school went on a trip that took them back in history halfway through, so anything's possible."

[whatdattonguedotho]

"Yeah, but... the whole island?" Eddie had his concerns.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia shrugged. "What, you're okay with trips to ancient Greece but not the island traveling in space?"

That was not a reasonable question anywhere else in the world.

[whatdattonguedotho]

"I'm sorta not okay with either of them to be honest?" Both were weird. Both were super weird.

[okteiviakom]

"Just checking." He'd sort of sounded like he'd been more concerned about one thing, but that was probably just very human of him. "I know it's weird. But it's how this place is, so the quicker you can start rolling with the punches, the better."

[whatdattonguedotho]

"I mean. I've gotten over the co-worker situation pretty fast at least," Eddie said, waving at a deer that froze like he was a predator before bounding back to its cubical.

[okteiviakom]

"It's a start," Octavia agreed, glancing after the deer.

... Yeah, that was a weird thing.

"I think this is kind of an 'adapt or perish' environment." Or maybe she just thought of it that way, seeing as all her previous environments had fit that philosophy too.

[whatdattonguedotho]

"I'm more of a... not either of those things type." Wow, so eloquent, Eddie. "Persistence. That's my thing."

[okteiviakom]

"Mine too," she replied, shrugging. "I think that counts as adapting." It definitely wasn't perishing.

[revengenotebook]

"Oh, you're finally at work," Paris said judgmentally, bursting through the doors like she lived there. "No wonder reporters are so poor. No work ethic."

[whatdattonguedotho]

What did he do to deserve being judged by a small, angry teenage girl? Was it all the people eating that Venom did? Was it that?

"Students loans don't help," Eddie said, clutching his coffee like a shield. It was cold and gross and he wasn't gonna drink it, but he was still holding on.

[revengenotebook]

"Where'd you go?" Paris asked. "I was figuring...University of Phoenix."

Mean, Paris.

[whatdattonguedotho]

"I'll have you know that I went to NYU." And C's did indeed get degrees, Paris.

[revengenotebook]

Paris hummed. "Not Columbia, though."

[whatdattonguedotho]

"Yeah, well. No." He found himself a sugar mama in Ann, thanks.

[revengenotebook]

"I'm going to go to Harvard," she said. "If they ever send the damn email."

[whatdattonguedotho]

"Maybe they're just runnin' behind." He knew fuck all about college admissions since it had been, oh, over a decade since he'd dealt with that.

Also, why was he trying to cheer Paris up? She had just berated him for not going to a more prestigious school.

[revengenotebook]

She had that weird aura about her.

"Maybe," Paris said. "I didn't apply early admission. Didn't want to look too eager, you know?"

[whatdattonguedotho]

It didn't help that Venom seemed to think she had more balls than Eddie. Which was rude and more than a little sexist if he wasn't almost certain that Venom was a lil' fuzzy on human genders.

"Is that a thing? Do they look at that?"

[revengenotebook]

"They might," Paris said. "The research is a little fuzzy on it. I have a huge legacy family thing going for me, plus I've been doing volunteer work since I was eight and I'm ridiculously smart, so why wouldn't they want me?"

[whatdattonguedotho]

So one of those kids.

"I'd say maybe they wanna give lower income candidates a chance, but Ivy League is shiii--not really known for that."

Caught himself before he could swear.