James Potter vs. Laundry

[dammitjames]

So far as James could surmise, this place was only half bad. There was sun, sand, and scantily clad women running about. In fact, James had yet to see one unattractive bird. Keeping his eyes forward was too difficult a task, and hey, he wasn't married yet and he most certainly wasn't blind

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[balladofbooth]

John stepped up and joined the man in front of the machine. He brought a hand up to his chin, pondering exactly what it was.

"Yes, it is indeed strange," He declared. "Any idea what is it? I wouldn't be so quick to touch and fiddle with it. It may be dangerous."

[dammitjames]

James turned his attention momentarily towards the source of the man's voice. When he saw him, he snorted somewhat dryly. Being a wizard, James saw plenty of people walking around with outdated hairstyles (not that he knew what would be outdated or anything), so it was just the paranoia that struck him as odd.

"Yeah, it looks like a real killer machine, doesn't it?" he said, pouring a scoop of detergent in the bottom. For emphasis, he gasped a little and jumped back from it, just to see what the bloke would do.

[balladofbooth]

Booth stepped back cautiously, but still maintaining a fixed stare and a dignified smirk on his face.

"You obviously haven't been on the island very long than, my friend," He have an arrogant little laugh. "Strange things happen all the time. I'd be careful" Booth nodded in the direction of the machine. A machine he still didn't know anything about.

[dammitjames]

The smirk was especially unimpressive, but James Potter decided in that moment, that he was definitely not this guy's friend. He'd been here long enough to know that strange things happened so that didn't impress him either.

He leaned against the machine, cocking a brow as he smirked back, easy and cocksure. "I'll be sure to keep that in mind," he assured, giving him a little wave goodbye since he hadn't asked for any suggestions from the stranger and didn't want to hear any more of them.

[skybot_snd]

It was a fairly rare occasion that the T-1000 found himself more thoroughly clothed than his surrounding environment.

"When in doubt, kick it," he offered helpfully as he entered the laundry room, glancing over to the puzzled looking, mostly naked human.

Maybe it was wrong of him to suggest machine abuse, but he had no sympathy for inferior machinery, especially island machinery.

[dammitjames]

A basic law of life was even though a room may have been empty for hours before, as soon as anything embarrassing was happening to someone, the room would serve spectators. Unfortunately, this spectator wasn't one of the island's fit birds.

James laughed and dropped his hand from his hair as he turned to the stranger. "I've tried that," he assured. "Got any other suggestions?"

[skybot_snd]

"Kick it harder," he suggested, mouth quirking into a momentary smile. "Or shoot it."

But maybe he could attempt to take the man's plight a bit more seriously. He was IPD, after all. He was supposed to help people. Even though providing washing machine tech support was almost certainly not a part of the job description. "What's the problem? Is it malfunctioning?"

[dammitjames]

There was something off about the guy's smile, but it was gone before James could figure out why.

Answering that question truthfully wasn't an option. James shrugged casually, then closed the lid. When water hissed inside the machine, James tried not to look too surprised, even though he glanced back at it with furrowed brows. Huh.

He turned back to the man and set the soap down on the lid. "It's working now," he said, then held out a hand towards the stranger. "James Potter," he introduced himself.

[not_the_grim]

Not only was James wearing nothing but a towel, but he had his damned hands in his hair. The combination of the two was enough to draw Sirius up short as he reached the bottom of the stairs and the laundry room beyond. For a moment, he simply hovered there in the shadows, watching and committing the entire scene to memory -- The jut of James' hip over the towel, the way errant droplets of water had fallen from his hair to his sunburned shoulders, the look of intense concentration on his face.

Okay, yeah, he needed to stop with that line of thinking, and immediately.

"It isn't psychically operated, Prongs," he declared, louder than necessary to compensate for the way just looking at James was making his head swim. He strode forward and hopped immediately onto the adjacent washer, long legs bumping the heels of his bare feet against the front of the machine. Sirius himself had extraordinary luck with the clothes bin thus far, and had an AC/DC t-shirt pulled on over his faded blue jeans.

[dammitjames]

Oh. Of course Sirius would have to come down here now. Why not? It wasn't like James was trying to get this whole laundry thing down without having his best mate taunting him on it. Why was he being so loud? Probably to attract other people there to come and watch James Potter's attempt at using Muggle equipment.

"I can see that, Padfoot," he responded. Just because he could, he took a step closer to where Sirius was merrily sitting on the other washer and dropped his hand for the moment to give his hair a good shake, sending water spraying everywhere, but mostly on Sirius. When he was quite satisfied with that, he slicked his hair back with his hand, even though it just wouldn't quite stay down. He grinned brightly at Sirius since that felt much better.

[not_the_grim]

In reciprocation, Sirius gave James' shoulder a solid shove. "If you'd wanted a wet t-shirt contest, Potter, all you had to do was ask," he shot back, wishing he had a more clever rejoinder, but still off his toes due to his best friend's general lack of clothing. "And stop putting your hands in your bloody hair!" he added in aggravation before seizing the box of laundry soap and examining the back.

[dammitjames]

"Ow, you prat!" James exclaimed when Sirius shoved him on his sunburn. To retaliate, he clapped a hand to Sirius' shoulder, chummily. "I don't know what you're on about, mate," he lied. Of course the clothes box had to go and give Sirius all the good stuff.

[furry_lil_prblm]

It was a bit odd, both James and Sirius being so much younger than he, but Remus' prevailing emotion was relief that they were both back on the island. Today, however, he had planned to avoid both of them, since there seemed to be something going round that had resulted in him acting as though he'd taken Veritaserum, and there were certain things he wasn't quite ready to explain. Things about their future he didn't want them hearing from anyone else, things he'd have to tell them about eventually.

He very nearly went back the way he'd come when he saw James in the laundry room, but didn't. Despite how those books about Harry may have come across, Remus was not a coward, and he didn't intend to start acting like one. "You've got a rather nice Gryffindor red going on your back there, Prongs," he commented, rather amusedly, as he joined the other man at the row of washing machines.

[dammitjames]

"I like it," James grinned as he glanced up at Remus from the box of soap. Bloody hell, Remus looked old and maybe slightly off today, but that could have been attributed to the wrinkles.

"You've been here for ages. How about you show me how these things work?"

[furry_lil_prblm]

"You know, you might have some familiarity with things such as this if you'd taken Muggle Studies as I'd suggested," Remus pointed out, returning the grin as he proceeded to turn the dials on the washer to the proper settings. Perhaps keeping the conversation to such light topics as the Muggle way of doing laundry, he noted, would keep him from having to discuss certain other things.

[dammitjames]

"Oh, God, you're not going to be one of those old men, are you?" James asked in a teasing tone. He watched Remus as he changed the dials on the machine. His clothes were already in there so it didn't take much to figure out that all he had to do now was close the lid.

"Voila," he declared when he heard the spray of the water inside the machine. "Stick with me, Moony. You'll learn a lot." Which was his way of saying thanks for the help, old man.

[backup_hero]

The man looked vaguely familiar, but not so much so that Neville was able to identify him at first glance. All he saw was someone stymied by the laundry room.

"It's not that bad once you get the hang of it," he reassured him, dropping his own bundle of clothing on top of an empty washing machine. "I hadn't any idea how to work it at first either."

[dammitjames]

What was this? An invitation for everyone to come see James vs. Machine? James looked over at the kid who had an entire load of wash.

"Yeah? I take it you're not from around here either." It was a broad statement, considering no one he'd met so far was from 'here'.

[backup_hero]

"I think I'm from about as far from here as a person can get," said Neville. "But you do get used to it after a while." Even if you never quite stopped missing what you left behind. "Are you done with the detergent?"

[dammitjames]

"Yep," James answered, tossing the closed soap box the kid's way. Hopefully, he wasn't nearly as fumbly as he looked. Luckily, James had read enough from the box to the washer to be able to operate the thing without anymore help than he'd already gotten.

"As far away as a person can get, huh? You don't sound more far away than me, mate."