Third Floor Common Room, Friday Evening

[dollpocalypse]

So for the second year in forever, Topher... was not making it to Comic-Con. Which was traumatizing. Seriously, what was the point of being from L.A. if he didn't get to do his annual four-day trek to San Diego with a tent for camping out for panels, a backpack of inappropriate starches, and absolutely zero qualms about annoying people in front of

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[ultron_junior]

Victor had mixed feelings about being social, but he'd already texted Nico just to make absolutely sure everything was still okay without him that she'd told him to turn off his phone. So he supposed talking to other people won out over hiding in his room for the night.

Also, there was pizza downstairs.

"Hey, Topher," he said, and snagged a slice. "Did I miss anything good?"

[ultron_junior]

Victor rubbed fingertips across his forehead. Probably saying Karolina's name had been a bad idea, especially when she was still sensitive about the alien ... thing.

"Probably, Topher, but I didn't say she was the one who went. Okay?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Okay, okay," Topher grumbled, disappointed to have that topic shut down. "Anyway, whoever went might turn out to like space. Because space is the best. That's all I'm saying."

[ultron_junior]

"I don't know, man," Victor said, seizing the chance to distract Topher. "I'd still rather move to New York. Most aliens don't seem to be all that nice."

[dollpocalypse]

"Ben is," Topher said immediately. "Do you know Ben? He's from... some British planet. Which has bugs on it that bite you, and they're annoying, but Ben is mostly cool."

So... distraction: successful.

[ultron_junior]

"I know I know the name, but I don't think I've talked to him," Victor allowed. "So, okay. You got to go to his planet with him, or he told you about the bugs?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Oh, I was there," Topher said gleefully. He might have deliberately steered the topic in that direction, because if he couldn't inquire about possibly-or-possibly-not-Karolina's adventures in space, at the very least he could talk about his own. "With him and Ender and Tony. And the weird bugs were there and also raceable speeders, which are basically bikes, and there was a pool and we went to a bar that served blue milk and yeah. It was pretty awesome." He paused to (he assumed) let Victor deal with his jealousy, then added, "You ever been to space?"

Topher, that was not nice. And also, it wasn't really the dig that you thought it was.

[ultron_junior]

Victor was deeply, truly jealous of blue milk, yes.

... though maybe he was a little jealous of the part where Topher got to go to places like that without being treated like slave labor, the way robots seemed to be in every outer space culture he heard about.

"Not the way you mean," he said stubbornly. "But I'm not even sure I want to go. Doesn't seem like the best place to be a robot, mostly."

[dollpocalypse]

"Oh. Yeah, that's... maybe a good call," Topher admitted, softening a little. "Um. Sorry. I mean, if people didn't know, then maybe...?"

[ultron_junior]

See, now Victor actually felt bad. "Dude, I don't actually care that much. There's just this alien I know who used to tell me I'd be, like, washing dishes back on his planet every time he got pissed. But if the situation was right -- of course I'd go. It sounds like you had an awesome time."

[dollpocalypse]

"Well, that guy was obviously an idiot," Topher decided. "You're obviously way too advanced for dishwashing duty. I mean, if anything, I bet there are planets where cyborgs like you could, like, teach college calculus, or something, since everyone says eventually that's going to happen on Earth anyway. But dishwashing would be seriously wasteful."

So... maybe that was helpful?

[ultron_junior]

"It's like the thing Professor Alenko was talking about in class today," Victor said, frowning a little. "You limit the AI so we don't take over. Seriously, don't I totally look like a threat?"

He had a smudge of cheese on his chin and was wearing a faded GAP logo T-shirt. He did not look like he wanted to conquer the world.

[dollpocalypse]

"Well, in my totally unprofessional opinion, which is seriously unprofessional since I've never seen your programming--" Nice hint there, Topher-- "I'd give that a maybe. I mean, you did take out your own world-domination trigger mechanism. That's pretty unthreatening."

[ultron_junior]

Victor smiled. "Thanks. No more threatening than you are, anyhow."

So that was a no on the programming, Topher.

[dollpocalypse]

"Hey, I'm kind of threatening," Topher objected. "I..."

Nice looooong pause.

"...Okay, fine, point taken."