Lennon Marx (movedthrough) wrote in zenithrp, @ 2016-05-11 10:37:00 |
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Entry tags: | #day 033, lennon, tobias |
Who: Lennon and Tobias
Where: the game room
When: mid-afternoon-ish
The results of Lennon trying to socialize were inconclusive. He’d thought it might make him feel better to hang with a couple of people in the house who liked him well enough-- at least until the results of the latest survey came out-- but he wasn’t sure it had. He’d done his best to smile and chat like usual, but he had the feeling his efforts were not up to par. At least there’d been cookies. He had a plastic container with several of his artistically iced cookies inside to bring to Tobias.
Today was a time when he’d wished he didn’t have such a smart mouth. A sinking feeling had set up in his stomach as soon as he’d seen the survey questions, popping up on the screen one by one like portents of doom. Jack was clearly going to be pissed off about the calendar thing, and Chase might be, too. The damaged comment could very well annoy Juno and any number of other people. He felt fairly sure that Chase would forgive him most things, and hopefully Kiley and Tobias would too, but he was feeling uneasy about the comment he’d made to Marco in a private message about Tobias. He didn’t want Tobs to think he was an asshole when that went public. Which it would.
Once on the third floor, he stopped by his room to kick off his shoes, then went over to Tobias’s room. The door was slightly open and nobody was home, so his next logical guess was the game room. Stepping through the door with cookies in hand, he said, “Got it in one.”
Tobias had been spending the majority of the day by himself. It was kind of lonely, but not so bad once he started playing video games. He felt silly about the stuff They had posted on the network that morning, and then everything that came after. People seemed to be having fun with it, besides Pam, so maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if They revealed to everyone who said what tomorrow. Maybe Tobias would get lucky and They wouldn’t say a word.
He was at one of the old arcade games when Lennon came in holding a container. “Hey,” he greeted, smiling at the sight of his friend. Yay, company. “How was your baking party?”
“It was okay,” Lennon said, leaning up against the machine Tobias was playing. “I think I prob’ly wasn’t in the right kind of mood to do that, but now there are cookies. That’s something, right?” The ones he’d brought with him were decorated in varying designs; there were a couple that were decorated like the tardis. As well as he could manage in icing, anyway. He thought they’d turned out pretty good.
"I like cookies," Tobias said, tapping on the red button to fire at a couple more spaceships before he turned to Lennon. "Still feeling crappy about this morning?" He both was, and wasn't. He was more embarrassed than anything, but no one seemed super upset about it. And honestly, he couldn't remember saying anything mean about anyone. Except that Pam was scary. And Kiley. Not in the same way. "Have you been on the network at all? Oliver posted this calendar thing, sort of making fun about what we said. Not in a mean way, but..."
“Kind of crappy, yeah,” Lennon said. Being on the network afterward hadn’t helped either, between Pam being snippy to him when he’d only been trying to be nice and then seeing the whole calendar debacle and the comment Juno had made. He knew she hadn’t meant anything by it-- much as he hadn’t meant anything by various remarks he’d made-- but today he felt down and that had made it a tick worse. “I saw it,” he said of the calendar post. “I loved how Juno said she tried not to picture me naked. That really makes a dude feel appealing.” He shrugged. “That’s the whole problem with saying stuff. You might not be tryin’ to be an asshole but it can come across that way. ‘Cause if you wanted everyone in the whole house to hear everything you said, you’d post it for everyone to see.” Okay, maybe he was a bit more annoyed by the whole thing than he tried to let on.
Tobias hadn't really read all of the comments on Oliver's post, just the basics. But he understood where Lennon was coming from. "Well, I mean, if she sees you as a friend? Then it might be weird to picture you naked. I mean, you guys seem close. Could be that... sister, brother thing..." He trailed off, feeling lame for trying to cheer Lennon up, mostly because he wasn't sure he was doing a very good job of it. Tobias smiled then and looked over to see he had lost the game he had been playing. That was okay. Lennon was more important. "Hey, at least you weren’t tagged the sexy baby new year. That was kind of humiliating too. So, I guess it is what it is."
“Yeah, could be,” Lennon said of Juno possibly seeing him as a friend slash brother type. He knew it hadn’t been an insult. Most likely, he was feeling more sensitive than usual today and also thinking about how tomorrow was going to suck. He heaved a giant sigh and then smiled ruefully at what Tobias said next. “I gotta agree with Juliet… there’s nothin’ sexy about babies. If you take the words ‘baby new year’ out, that could work.” His smile warmed somewhat, and he glanced down slightly before looking back up to meet Tobias’s eyes.
“Then it’s just sexy, which is so not accurate,” Tobias said with a laugh. “I guess we opened a can of worms talking about calendars. Glad they had a sense of humor about it, though? Hopefully they don’t think we’re creepy if They tell everyone who said what. I mean, not everything was bad, you know?” Tobias gestured toward the cookie container. “So are you going to share? I’m starving.”
Lennon pointed a finger at him and said, “Sexy’s in the eye of the beholder, right?” He shrugged at Tobias’s next words. “I got kinda weirded out by everyone talking like it was a thing, ya know? It’s like, way to take a random, off the cuff conversation and run with it.” When Tobias asked if he was going to share, he lifted the container and shook it teasingly. “Yeah, let’s go sit down.” There were couches and a bar; he left it to Tobias to decide where to take a seat.
Tobias supposed that was true. He just didn't think he was sexy. He certainly never felt sexy. And being compared to a cutesie baby new year didn't really help that mentality either. "Well, it is a thing," Tobias said, walking over to sit down on the couch. It was more comfortable than the bar stools. "I mean, I'm not mad about it or anything. I think they were just taking a comment that could have like, maybe potentially upset people and just made it fun? At least we hadn't been talking about the girls in the house, right? That might have just made people angry."
Lennon followed Tobias over to the couch and sat down next to him, opening the container of cookies and setting it between them. “I think a lot of those comments sucked, the way they posted them without context. And I think I have a huge, smart mouth.” He sighed, still feeling weird about everything. “Yeah, people seem to take it worse when it’s about girls.” He fished a cookie out of the container and held it between two fingers. “There was somethin’ I said that I wanted to talk to you about, because you might think I was being flippant, or…” Just call him the great communicator.
Since he was hungry, Tobias reached for one of the cookies, hoping they tasted as good as they looked. “Yeah, but people who know you will know you didn’t mean anything bad by what you said,” Tobias pointed out. “And if the people who don’t know you get upset, then… well, they should get to know you better.” He took a bite of the cookie and watched Lennon expectantly. “What’d you say?” No one had really said anything bad about him. There had only been maybe two comments with his name in it, so Tobias wasn’t too bummed out.
Tobias had good answers to Lennon’s angst; they made perfect sense. Maybe he needed people who’d get him out of a mental rut sometimes. He crunched into his cookie contemplatively, feeling the icing smear on his fingers. “It was the thing about being cute and twitchy. When I saw it pop up on the survey, it sounded extra stupid.” Like a lot of his remarks. “I wasn’t trying to be an asshole. It was one of those conversations that goes in fifty different directions.” Damn, could he ever stop rambling? “I actually think you’re really attractive.” Hell, why not spill out all his innards right here?
Oh, that comment. Tobias shrugged and smiled, just to reassure Lennon that he wasn't bothered. "Hey, I am twitchy. I know that. I didn't think whoever said it was trying to be a jerk. I mean, someone compared me to a dog. Not in a bad way, sure, but it wasn't the worst thing said." Tobias took another bite of his cookie and felt his face starting to warm. It wasn't like people never complimented him. He just always shifted into a shy, self conscious-mode when they did. Apparently these days, it was when Madison or Lennon did it. Figured. "I'm no Chase, but I guess I do okay for myself," Tobias said lightly, hoping his face wasn't turning bright red. "You're cute too. Uh, attractive. Whatever word would be better to use right now."
“Comparing you to Neptune would be okay. He’s cool,” Lennon joked. Not that he’d spent any significant time around Neptune, but… dogs. Unless they were vicious, he tended to be a fan of them. He snarfed down the rest of the cookie in his hand and then licked his fingers, then rolled his eyes at the comment about Chase. “Well, there’s only one Chase, so you know.” Honestly, once he’d gotten to know Chase he’d realized that the most appealing thing about the guy was his kindness and the way he cared for others, not his looks. It certainly didn’t hurt to have eye candy though, right? “Probably attractive sounds more studly, but cute is better than no notice at all. That’s my theory.” He reached for another cookie. “And thank you. We’re both hot in that quirky, laissez-faire kind of way. Or something.”
Tobias nodded as he chewed. The cookie was pretty good, and at least it gave him something to focus on, despite how hot his face felt. He then wondered if They were recording this conversation, and Tobias looked up and around, as if expecting to see one of the cameras zoomed in on them or something. "See, now I'm worried about what we're saying. Not like it's a bad thing to be complimented, right? Chase, you're hot," Tobias called out before laughing, his cheeks still pink. He broke off another piece of cookie and popped it into his mouth. "You're attractive then. Cute, to me, always sounds like... teddy bear cute. Like, 'aw, he's cute'. Studly is more guys that look like they should be in magazines. Or something. And here I am, still running my mouth. I'll go with hot. I don't know what laissez-faire means, though."
“We’re not sayin’ anything bad about anyone,” Lennon said. “They’re always gonna be poring over everything we say,, watching everything we do. After this dies down, I bet people’ll stop watching what they say so carefully.” It only made sense. They had to live here, interact with people. Everyone was going to confide in others, and most were going to forget they were being watched and listened to. “Laissez-faire is kind of like, you let it be what it wants to be. Very loosely translated. Very.” He grinned, hoping there wasn’t cookie in his teeth. Maybe he should get drunk sometime and just hit on the guy. Subtle flirting didn’t seem to have any effect.
“I’ve already started watching what I say,” Tobias pointed out, smiling before he took another bite of his cookie. “
Lennon devoured another cookie. They were actually pretty damn great, in his opinion. “Yeah, it’s French. One of those words you pick up randomly.” He wiped his fingers on his jeans and sighed, trying to assess if his mood was any better than it had been earlier. Maybe a little. There was so little he could do about most things, and that tended to wear on a person. He certainly wasn’t the only one for that, though. “I’m always up for something fun,” he said. “Like what?”
“Oh… I don’t know. Um… want to go to the basement? They have like, games and prizes to win and stuff,” Tobias suggested, hoping it wasn’t a totally lame idea. “I haven’t gone down there yet, but that’s what I hear. Might be fun to check it out?” Really, he was good with whatever Lennon might want to do, even if that was just hanging out and doing nothing. His friend still seemed kind of down, and Tobias felt like he needed to cheer him up, even if that meant trying to think of something for them both to do. “Or we could hang out and sketch? Or watch a movie?”
Lennon hesitated, feeling odd about the thought of the basement but not knowing why. He hadn’t been yet either, and he’d wanted to see it… but not today. “Yeah, Jack was psyched about winning some KFC chicken playing whack-a-mole. I’d be scared to eat chicken that came out of a machine, but everyone’s different.” He chewed on one corner of his lip. “Can we do that another time? How about going over to the theater and watching a movie and sketching at the same time? Double the fun, right?” Sketching usually cheered him up fairly well.
KFC in a machine? Tobias made a mental note to head down to the basement soon, even if he had to go alone. He hadn’t had fast food since arriving in Zenith and he really did miss it. Maybe they would have Chipotle down there somewhere too. That would be amazing and almost worth captivity. Almost. Tobias smiled and nodded. “Yeah, let’s do that.” It would be mindless distraction, which it seemed like Lennon needed right then. “Want me to run downstairs to the kitchen and grab some cookies or popcorn too?” He would never say no to food.
“Okay,” Lennon said. “Yeah, that sounds good. I’ll bring the cookies and get sketchpads and stuff together.” And he’d definitely be going for a comedy or something without any kind of unpleasantness. There’d been a time when he’d liked scary movies, but here they seemed to be upsetting, and he felt like it would upset Tobias for sure. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and put the top on the cookies. “I have some bottles of water in my room, or do we want booze?”
"Uh..." Tobias was trying to think if it would be a good idea for liquor right now. It was still early enough in the day that if he started drinking, he might just be out for the count the rest of the night. "Maybe water for now. If we stay in there all night, we can get something better to drink later?" He was enough of a lightweight to know that one or two drinks would mean silly sketches and probably a lot of laughing and possibly passing out. "I can get the drinks if you want to get the other stuff. The cookies are pretty good, so definitely bring those too." He moved to stand up from the stool, happy enough to have something to do now that included a friend. And hopefully he would be able to cheer Lennon up some more.
Upon second thought, it was early to start boozing. Unless one was a hardcore alkie, and Lennon didn’t think he was. “Water’s good, yeah. We’ll see what we end up doing as far as later.” Sometimes he needed somebody with sense to rein him in, and this was one of those times, evidently. “Let’s do it.” He climbed off of his barstool and picked up the cookies. Drawing and Tobias would hopefully help him to get himself out of his funk. If not, he could draw something super angsty. That worked.