Day 50: Intercom, Evening

[damned_intercom]

As expected, after the allotted amount of time had passed, the nurses started to move through the waiting rooms to inform the visitors that it was time for them to leave, whereas in the Sun Room King Kong was turned off and the staff quickly sprung to action to put the equipment away

Comments

....wow I have not laughed so hard in ages. THAT WAS AMAZING.

[emotionl4arobot]

The day had started out to promising, what with the discovery of the omnicom in his room and catching up with the Doctor as well as having some time to put more thought into his plans here, but after the surprise meeting with Grell and then his discussion with Venom, Brainiac 5 wasn't really in the same good spirits he'd been in during the morning. Fortunately dinner time in his room with Peter offered some measure of relief. Somewhere that he didn't have to worry about Grell suddenly showing up, not to mention someone he could talk to about what had been happening

[emotionl4arobot]

"Well it makes sense," Brainiac 5 answered, relieved that it had just been a dream and nothing too concerning. He backed away a little as Peter stood and made his way over to his own desk and hastily abandoned dinner instead. "Considering how much time we spend running around all night attempting to achieve certain goals, it was either likely that there'd be something to work around limited sleeping hours or that eventually your body will need to catch up."

Settling down into his own chair, Brainiac 5 started picking at his meal, double checking that it didn't contain any meat before he started eating it slowly.

"Not much," he answered carefully. "I spoke with a few different people, but nothing that significant comes to mind."

There was little point in mentioning Grell to Peter, since it would only make the other boy worry, and Brainiac 5 felt he'd done that enough to his roommate. Besides, there was another matter to consider.

"What about your meal? Is it still...?"

[emotionl4arobot]

"That's great!" Brainy answered, picking up on Peter's obvious enthusiasm and returning the grin with a smile of his own. It was a little bit strange that there seemed to be no reason for the effect to have passed, nor much of an explanation as to how it had happened in the first place, but his curiosity was second to the fact his roommate could actually eat a decent meal again.

Brainiac 5 watched with no little amusement as Peter dug into the meal, all but inhaling a decent portion of it before he showed any signs of slowing down.

"Actually," he said, recalling something else he'd been meaning to ask the other boy the day before, but had forgotten when the strange hair-related contamination had begun. "There's something I was going to ask you. It came up on the bus yesterday morning and while I'm fairly certain it's something to do with conversation, the source makes me suspicious enough I thought I should check.

What does the term 'fap' refer to, exactly?"

[emotionl4arobot]

Brainiac 5's smile faded as he saw Peter's reaction to the term. Had he been incorrect about the possible meaning? Or did it mean something like he'd thought, but was simply offensive? He'd have to hope Peter explained it adequately, in any case. Though he was substantially more curious about it now.

"There was a girl on the bus," he began. "She told me I should trade places with her and... do that with the boy sitting next to her."

He was silent for a moment, carefully studying his roommate's face, his meal temporarily forgotten.

"What does it mean?"

[emotionl4arobot]

Blank confusion greeted Peter's searching gaze, as Brainiac 5 quickly ran through what he knew of twenty-first century slang and then, just in case, thirty-first century slang. And came up empty. A lot of things had been lost or changed over a thousand years, and what he'd learned from Superman on top of that tended to deal with more specific areas. 'Jacking off', whatever that was, hadn't been a topic of discussion, for whatever reason.

Slowly the Coluan shook his head. "I'm sorry, Peter," he said, "but I'm not sure what the name Jack has to do with anything..."

He hesitated and directed his gaze down at his dinner, picking over it carefully. If he'd known the reaction it would get, Brainy wouldn't have raised the topic in the first place. Peter had every right to enjoy his dinner in peace after all. Especially after the last day when he hadn't been able to eat much at all.

"You don't have to answer if it makes you uncomfortable," he said at last. "It's nothing important. Just a passing comment that I was curious about."

[emotionl4arobot]

Peter was slowly turning a bright shade of red, which almost certainly meant that Brainiac 5 would have been better off not to ask about the word at all. The other boy had also taken to abandoning his dinner in favour of staring at the floor and gesturing with his hands with movements that, if they did mean anything, weren't any language Brainiac 5 was familiar with

[emotionl4arobot]

Apparently he'd been wrong in his initial assumption; it was possible for his face to become even more of a deep shade of red. Brainiac 5 couldn't even muster up the coherency to try and cut Peter off and explain until his roommate stopped on his own and the Coluan was aware of the fact he was, for lack of a better word, boggling at the other boy

[emotionl4arobot]

Brainiac 5 was more than aware by this point that dinner would have been far, far more enjoyable if he hadn't asked what had seemed like a perfectly innocent question about a peculiar turn of phrase at the time. Now he'd essentially ruined the entire meal for himself and Peter, and he still couldn't quite look the other boy in the eyes