Too Much Time on His Hands... [OPEN]
Characters: Ryoga and Anyone
Location: The Rec Room
Time: Middle of the day on a weekday during summer break
Content: Ryoga's been staying inside so he won't wander off and has dicovered daytime television--more specifically soap operas. He's watching a marathon of "The Pugnacious and the Pretty" (I know, I have a little too much fun with thinly ( Read more... )
Location: The Rec Room
Time: Middle of the day on a weekday during summer break
Content: Ryoga's been staying inside so he won't wander off and has dicovered daytime television--more specifically soap operas. He's watching a marathon of "The Pugnacious and the Pretty" (I know, I have a little too much fun with thinly ( Read more... )
Comments 74
That left Prince with a lot of free time. He could study because he wanted to learn all about the strange things on Earth, but it was summer! That meant breaks for humans. And Mama wanted him to take a break!
Running around the halls, Prince eventually ended up in the Rec. Room. It sounded like two women were having an argument inside! But upon entering, he didn't find anyone arguing. An antenna belonging to a child-sized alien bobbed in front of the screen. Prince curiously looked at the image. "Ah! Papa must have fixed this satellite!"
Reply
"Shh," he chastised absently in a monotone, "I can't hear." The dialogue was mostly just name calling at this point, but Ryoga had been waiting for someone to tell off one of the parties in the argument for some time now.
Reply
The human looked very into the program. Papa must have fixed it! Only he could make a satellite that show such engrossing and dramatic programs that captured people's attention!
Though, to Prince, it didn't make much sense. He turned to the human watching and asked, "Why are they yelling at each other? Did someone throw a ball inside the house and broke a vase? That's not very nice."
Reply
Wow... That kid was tiny and had a proportionally very large head! Don't stare! he mentally scolded himself.
To be perfectly honest, Ryoga wasn't entirely sure of the entire back story to the argument himself, but he was willing to give explaining it a shot.
"The red-haired lady is mad at the blonde lady because the blonde lady told the red-head's daughter's fiance a lie about the daughter because she wants the fiance to marry her daughter instead. The blonde lady is trying to pretend she didn't lie, and that the red-haired lady is trying to ruin her reputation, but she lies about everything, so I don't know why she thinks it would matter..." He may have just confused himself more trying to explain! "Basically, they don't like each other at all."
Reply
He found himself passing a room that he vaguely remembered visiting before. There were voices coming from it. He looked inside, seeing a dark-haired boy watching the television screen carefully. Though he had seen videos before, Luke had never actually watched public television before. He leaned on the back of the couch, watching for about a minute, then asked, "What's this?"
Reply
"Huh? Oh, it's a soap opera called 'The Pugnacious and the Pretty,' and I swear all of the characters are insane. I kind of like this guy named Alonzo, though. He's a little less annoying than the others, but that's probably just because he's trying to be super nice to help hide the fact that he's actually an undercover assassin."
Reply
Before he could ask what the term "soap opera" meant, a very energetic and musical soft drink commercial came on and he was suddenly distracted.
Reply
After a few moments, Ryoga recognized Luke as the new person he'd run into on the day of the water fight. Fighting down panic, he tried hard to act like he'd never seen the other boy before. Luke had only seen him as a pig, after all.
Reply
Ryoga may or may not have noticed the blonde sitting in the corner of the rec room, browsing the internet on her laptop. She eyed the TV and began to mutter under her breath. As she did so, the airing program suddenly cut to static.
If the show happened to be interrupted at a crucial moment, that was too bad.
Reply
"Don't do it!" he mumbled under his breath. "What if she can never forgive you for lying to her?"
He leaned forward as Alonzo approached Estelle and began to speak. Then there was either a sudden, indoor blizzard, or the picture had gone out.
Ryoga gaped an let out an agonized gasp. Noooo! He had to know if Alonzo confessed or not, and more importantly, how Estelle responded! This was so unfair!
He frantically stood and tried looking around the set to see if a wire of some kind had pulled loose or something.
Reply
Lily ceased mumbling and hummed a random tune instead, still keeping her power in effect. It was sort of a game, to see how long people realized what was going on and connected the glitching to her. Such fun.
Reply
Having walked around the television set several times--but fortunately not actually touching it--he decided it wasn't a wiring issue. He didn't see an antenna, so maybe there was a problem with a satellite? Sunspots? Someone at the t.v. station leaned on a button?
He sat back down on the couch to think about it some more; besides, maybe the problem would fix itself if he was patient.
Reply
... Soap Operas.
You've got to be kidding.
Who would watch those things? He just had to know. So he made his way into the room and stood behind the couch, looking first at the boy who was watching the shows, and then at the TV.
The next time he looked at his watch, a half hour had passed.
Reply
"Um, hi. You can sit down, if you want."
He wondered how long they'd been standing there...
Reply
Leave a comment