Room 401, Saturday Morning

[ultron_junior]

It wasn't like Victor spent a lot of time zapping stuff. Electromagnetic bursts of lightning were not exactly something you needed to get through your average day of classwork and video games.

But when he woke up feeling vaguely, indefinably off, it didn't take him long to work out that that was what was missing. His other abilities still seemed intact, and a systems check showed he hadn't come down with a virus or anything (ha, robot humor). But when he reached out with that power, nothing at all happened. It was as if he'd never had it to begin with.

Disconsolate, he laid back down on the bed, barely noticing he'd plowed through a whole box of Pop-Tarts while he tried to figure this out. In fact, he was still a little hungry: Maybe he'd go into town for some waffles and see if those helped.

[OOC: And I am done with the open, establishy posts. Victor got the Rory Gilmore appetite. Weekend SP in effect.]

Comments

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

There was a really, really quick knock at Victor's doorframe. Olive had decided to swing back by his room on her way to her own after radio because she is everywhere this morning to see if anything was up with him, too. "Good mooooooooooooorning!"

[ultron_junior]

"Hola," Victor returned suspiciously. "Are you chipper? You sound really chipper."

Almost too much so, in his opinion. Like something was up with her too.

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"Can't I be in a good mood?" Olive wondered, before grinning at him. "Wanna see something cool?"

[ultron_junior]

"Always," Victor said, curving his mouth into a little smile. "Show me?"

He was annoyed his power was gone, but it was little more than an annoyance: After six months, he knew not to take anything strange that happened on a Saturday too seriously.

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

Olive leaned casually against the doorway, before hurrying across the room to join him on the bed.

'Hurrying' being a relative term. She was there in under a second.

"Ta da!" she proclaimed, beaming as she flung out her arms.

[ultron_junior]

Victor's eyes widened. "That was superspeed," he realized, returning the hug. He was momentarily distracted from either his stomach or his own missing power. "That was awesome. Do you think you could shake something so fast it exploded?"

It worked for Tommy Shepherd!

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"No idea!" Olive said happily before giving him a weird look. "But now I wanna try. I just woke up with this. Did you get anything new?"

[ultron_junior]

"I knew someone with superspeed who can," Victor explained. "And no, I lost something. No zapping things with lightning bolts for me right now."

He sounded vaguely melancholy about it.

"I figured the island might be in a mood, but it's cool you got something out of it."

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"I think those of us who got something lost something, too," Olive noted. "It seemed like that in the common room earlier anyway. I'm not totally sure what my lost thing is, but I have a guess." Oh, not having to use a calculator, she'd miss you. "But hey, it's probably just for a weekend, and...how often do you zap things on a daily basis?"

[ultron_junior]

"I do when people are attacking me," Victor said, shrugging as if to concede the point that wasn't something that happened every day. "But -- okay, so that means I theoretically got something, even if I haven't noticed yet. Right? And I agree this has weekend weird written all over it."

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"If someone attacks you, I'll...super-speed at them until they stop?" Olive tried. "I feel like this is more defensive than offensive. And yeah, I bet you totally got something you haven't noticed yet! It's probably just something you wouldn't use without meaning to."

[ultron_junior]

"Probably. Maybe I'm like a world-champion bobsledder," Victor suggested. "And if we got attacked, you could pick me up and carry me away?"

He was secure. He could put up with being carried by his girlfriend if it was life or death.

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"We'll say the super-speed comes with super-strength, sure," Olive decided. "But yeah. I think the weekend is based on somehow...trading something else in. Like, okay, this is embarrassing, but I can't do math anymore. Like, I can go super-fast, but I need my phone's calculator a lot more than before. I dunno if it's math that's gone, or if I'm just dumb now, or what, though."

[ultron_junior]

"Well, super-speed that doesn't come with super-strength always seems like kind of a rip-off to me anyhow," Victor shrugged. "And on the other thing -- okay, wanna spell and define idiosyncracy?"

He didn't think she was dumb; she seemed pretty normal so far. But a quick test would help prove it to her, too.

[OOC: That was one of my favorite typos ever.]

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"I-D-I-O-S-Y-N-C-R-A-C-Y," Olive spelled quickly (though not at super-speed.) "And it's an irregularity or quirk."

A pause, and then, "So it's probably just the math then, I guess."

[ultron_junior]

"Probably," Victor said. "Which is not too bad, is it? It's not like you're going to get into a do calculus or die situation."

It was his turn to pause. "Actually, do those ever come up?"

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"What if this weekend was the one time when they did?" Olive asked, looking sad. "The one and only time I'd be useful in a scary situation."

[ultron_junior]

"I could maybe step in and do the calculus for you?" Victor suggested. "Unless I wasn't around. Then you could just run away really fast."

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"I feel like running away seems to be my main strategy for everything this weekend," Olive mused. "Maybe it's for the best that I don't normally have powers. Fleeing the scene isn't particularly admirable."

[ultron_junior]

"It's a hell of a lot better than dying," Victor said thoughtfully. "Anyhow, if you had it for real you'd figure out a secondary ability. You'd be a badass ninja or a weapons expert or something on top of the superspeed."

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"Or, since this is me, I'd use it for totally stupid things," Olive replied. "Like I will this weekend. Is there anything I could get for you that'd make you feel better about losing your zapping? 'Cause I could probably grab it and be back inside of seconds."

Case in point.

[ultron_junior]

"Maybe. Is it too early for lunch?" Victor wondered. "'Cause I would love a really huge tuna salad sandwich with jalapenos and onion rings. Or maybe a mocha milkshake. Or, y'know, both."

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"...are you pregnant?" Olive wondered, eyeing him. "Or just like, extra-Victor-y? Maybe that's your power."

[ultron_junior]

Victor feigned offense. "Extra Victor-y would be if I wanted the tuna in the mocha milkshake. Think I'm just hungry."

[dollpocalypse]

Topher didn't want to knock. Knocking was for people who weren't badasses who could fly.

Instead, he hovered in mid-air and experimented with lightly kicking the top of the doorframe. It probably sounded the same as a knock, but it was the principle of the thing.

"Hey, Viiiictor."

[ultron_junior]

"Hi," Victor said, not taking his eyes off the food porn webpage he'd been reading. "Do you want waffles? Because I really want-- que madre, you can float."

[dollpocalypse]

"I can and I do," Topher said cheerfully. "Waffles are awesome, and I am currently badass." Gloating was called-for in this instance. Don't you judge him for gloating. "Did you get any new power today?"

[ultron_junior]

Victor snorted. "Worked the other way on me. I can't zap stuff. You guys are the lucky show-offs this weekend."

So, yes -- if it were him, he'd be gloating too.

[dollpocalypse]

"Wrong," Topher said, lowering until he was only a few inches above the ground and then dropping from mid-air to stand like a normal person. "It's a switching thing, apparently. Lose something, get something. Unless the island just crapped out on you in particular."

[ultron_junior]

"Dude, if I got anything it's like ... translating Estonian or something you'd never use," Victor returned. "My day has been completely normal so far."

As he said that, he groped into his nighttable drawer. He could swear there were some M&Ms in there last time he looked.

"Can you fly, or just float?"

[dollpocalypse]

Huh. He hadn't thought about that. "Depends," Topher said thoughtfully. "What's the difference?"

Sigh, science knowledge. HE MISSED YOU SO.

[ultron_junior]

"Flying is what Tony does in the suit," Victor said helpfully. "Floating is just kind of ... hovering, and you can't move very fast. Still cool, though."

He tilted his head at Topher, forgetting the siren call of the M&Ms for the moment. "You shouldn't have had to ask me that."

[dollpocalypse]

"I know," Topher sighed. "Apparently, my superpower is being a genius, so now that I have this floating/possibly flying thing..."

SIGH.

[ultron_junior]

"Ohhhhhh," Victor said sympathetically. "Um, there's ... nothing wrong with being average?"

Not that he'd want to try it.

[dollpocalypse]

"There's totally something wrong with it," Topher sighed. "But this is probably just an island weekend thing, so... hopefully we don't get some kind of radioactive rock crisis or something before everyone's back to normal."

[ultron_junior]

"If we did, somebody would fill in for you as science genius and you could fly supplies to safety," Victor suggested. "... wait, does this mean somebody else can zap things all of a sudden? 'Cause that could be sort of dangerous."

He was so concerned by the possibility he didn't even eat the M&Ms he'd finally located.

[dollpocalypse]

"...Maybe." Topher hadn't even considered that the powers were being distributed to other people. More that they were just coming out of nowhere. Which, had his science knowledge been intact, he would've immediately dismissed as ridiculous. "Ugh, and someone's going around with my brain? But that's my brain!"

[ultron_junior]

"Your intelligence, not your brain," Victor pointed out. "It's not like they'd be you. Exactly."

[dollpocalypse]

"The difference would be pretty negligible, let's be real," Topher pointed out. "I'm mostly how smart I am." So self-aware, Topher. "But at least if someone randomly lightnings the whole school, they should be pretty easy to find?"

[ultron_junior]

Victor blinked, because for Topher that actually was pretty good self-awareness.

He had the grace not to argue.

"True," he agreed. "It's not a subtle thing. And -- I mean, you could fuck somebody up by shocking them? But my blasts aren't strong enough to kill anybody by accident. Or at least, I never have."

These were the silver linings you found when your main offensive power was gone.

[dollpocalypse]

"So there you go," Topher said brightly. "No one's dying from surprise Victor-ness. Probably. Unless they do it right to someone's face or something."

The face probably wasn't the most sensitive target, Topher, no. But good try.