Fifth Floor Common Room, Wednesday evening

[willbethenight]

Bruce was watching cable news. Nothing but talk of financial meltdowns, political bickering, angry old people yelling at each other, and something about cute animals every fifteen minutes or so

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[randomspanish]

Freddie was having issue himself, and he'd gone for a walk to try and clear his head. He'd ended up in the common room and went to pour himself a glass of water.

"Anything exciting happening in the world?" he asked, when he saw the news broadcast.

[willbethenight]

"Nothing new and exciting," Bruce said. "Just the same old people yelling at each other."

[randomspanish]

"And I bet it's, like, a real debate and not hammers versus whipped cream," Freddie said.

He made a mental note to propose a random debate on Friday's iCarly.

"I always wondered how these guys actually... I mean, is it their whole job just to yell on TV?"

[willbethenight]

"At this point, yes," Bruce said. "They used to get paid to yell more quietly off TV. Now they're in the big leagues."

[randomspanish]

"I don't get politics at all," Freddie said, taking a sip of water. "But I guess this is better to watch then, like, other stuff right now. Nice and... neutral."

[willbethenight]

"That's the idea," Bruce said. "I figured people could use a mid-week break."

[randomspanish]

Freddie gulped down some more water. "Seriously, is there something wrong with the ventilation in this... island?" he said, knowing that it wasn't just in the dorms. "I feel like... okay, maybe this is not a conversation we should be having. This is way too awkward."

[willbethenight]

"I try to keep conversations like that to close friends or attractive girls," Bruce said in agreement. "But something certainly seems to be strange, you're right."

[randomspanish]

"Yeah, me too," Freddie said. He wasn't sure he'd ever want to have that sort of conversation with Gibby, though. "So... you know anything about model trains?"

Smooth, Fredward. Smooth.

[willbethenight]

"Not much," Bruce said. "I do know they can be incredibly detailed, and some people can be obsessive about them. Are you one of those people?"

[randomspanish]

"Not that obsessive," Freddie said. Even though he totally was. "I've been trying to see if there's interest in putting together an unofficial club. So far, only two people I know of that are interested. And one of them is me. I guess it's kind of a specialized interest."

[willbethenight]

"Who's the other person?" Bruce said. "I promise I'm not going to make fun of either of you. I don't have issues with obsessive hobbies."

[randomspanish]

"Butters," Freddie said. "He's a cool kid, and knows just as much about trains as any of my old Training Bros friends in Seattle. And hey, you never know when knowing how many rivets are on a sixty-four Trudge Master might save the world."

The answer was actually quite knowable. And that answer was 'never'.

[willbethenight]

"Stranger things have happened, I'm sure," Bruce said. "Especially here."

[randomspanish]

"I can hope," Freddie said with a chuckle. "Otherwise I'm just the biggest nub at the school." He shrugged, actually okay with that label.

"Last time stuff got weird, I wasn't exactly mister save-the-day."

No, he'd gotten himself vanished from existence trying to win an argument.

[willbethenight]

"Most of us weren't," Bruce said. "So I wouldn't focus too much on that."