Room 401, Also Tuesday Morning

[ultron_junior]

It was move-out day in 401, and since Victor wasn't totally clear on where he'd end up living back in L.A., he was trying to pack light. Some things he was happy to get rid of; for example, he was all too pleased to see the bulky layers he'd needed for East Coast winters go off to Goodwill. Others, like certain class notes and anything from his friends, he kept for entirely sentimental reasons.

But he hesitated over his pile of comics. On the one hand, they were bulky to lug around and most of them weren't even worth anything. He could Torrent anything he wanted to reread. On the other, they were comics and comics were an awesome resource for a wannabe hero. And it had been a long time since he read that Spider-Man annual.

He flipped through it, getting lost in the story instead of finishing his packing.

[OOC: Door open. Last post on the island, sniff!]

Comments

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

"Heading out?" Maddie asked from the doorway.

[ultron_junior]

Victor glanced up from his book with a start (and the slightest blush at being caught reading a comic even he knew was pretty silly). "Yeah," he said. "Just checking whether any of these are worth saving. What's up with you?"

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

"Not much. I just wanted to make sure I caught you before you left," she said. "What are those?"

[ultron_junior]

"Spider-Man annuals from a couple years back," Victor admitted. "I've been dragging them around since I lived with my mom. The story in this one's pretty good, even if I'm like 90 percent sure they completely made it up."

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

"I'm sure they did. And probably claimed artistic license or whatever," she said. "You could always ask him."

[ultron_junior]

He wanted to. God, he wanted to.

"You don't think that would be weird?"

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

"I don't know. I mean, he seems cool. He might be flattered you asked."

Maddie had no idea, do not trust her opinion.

[ultron_junior]

"Maybe," Victor said hopefully. "And if it is made up, he'd probably want to set the record straight, right? I would."

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

"Exactly! Also it's an excuse to talk to Spider-Man."

Seriously don't trust her opinion. He'd probably facepalm with the proportionate strength of a spider.

[ultron_junior]

"Which I've done exactly once, so I could probably use all the help I can get if it happens again," Victor said. "He was pretty much my favorite when I was a kid."

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

"Aww, cute. I was always a Ms. Marvel girl myself," Maddie admitted. "I got to train with Spider-Man a while back, though. It was pretty awesome."

[ultron_junior]

"I can't complain about Ms. Marvel fangirling," Victor told her. "And yeah, that sounds awesome. He bought me sushi the time I met him, but then there was kind of a fight, so..."

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

"Wait, you got to have sushi with Spider-Man? That's so cool." Fight, schmight. Sushi with Spider-Man.

[ultron_junior]

"Except for how I never had sushi before so I kind of looked like a tool," Victor admitted. "But yeah, we ran into him in New York and he decided to feed us. It was one of my top 10 life experiences."

Except for how Nico hit Spider-Man with a sleeping spell mid-meal, but Victor didn't feel Maddie needed to hear that right then.

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

"Tool or not, I'm totally jealous," Maddie said. "So you've got that going for you."

[ultron_junior]

"See, that's totally why I did it," Victor nodded, grinning. "To make girls jealous in a couple years."

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

"Good job, past you," she smiled. "You'll have to let me know when you get to do cool stuff again. You know, so I can be appropriately jealous."

[ultron_junior]

"Deal, but only if you tell me when you do cool stuff too," Victor offered.

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

"Deal. Though I doubt I'll be doing the fun stuff. More like teaching other people to do the fun stuff," Maddie said.

[ultron_junior]

"You could still fill me in on gossip," Victor suggested.

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

"Oh, that I'll definitely do. You'll hear everything," she promised.

[ultron_junior]

"See, that's why we need to stay in touch," Victor said, and reached to give her a hug. "I'm going to miss you, y'know."

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

"I'll miss you, too," she said, hugging him back. "Have fun and be careful and all that, right?"

[ultron_junior]

"Same to you," Victor said. "And don't let the island fall apart afetr I leave."

[dollpocalypse]

"Hey, Vic, do you need any spare cables?" Topher said, striding into the room with a fistful of different-colored cords. "I st-- borrowed all this stuff from Stark's and I can't actually fit it in my bag. Ooh, comics?"

Someone was a little hyped up on energy drinks. Packing up his disaster of a room was a project.

[ultron_junior]

"Yeah, I'm trying to decide if I want to keep them or leave them in the common room for the next guy," Victor explained. "Not like I read much on paper anymore."

He eyed the cables. "Sure, stick 'em into the blue bag," he decided. "I have room and you can't really have too many." They were like candy that way!

[dollpocalypse]

"I'll take them," Topher offered readily. "Torrenting is barely a thing in my world. Plus I kinda want to see what superhero comics from a superhero world are like. Is it all lampshading?"

[ultron_junior]

"They're yours," Victor told him, gesturing to the pile. "And yeah, lots of lampshading. Also a lot of stuff where you can tell they made crap up because they don't know what really happened. Like, this one has Wolverine randomly show up."

[dollpocalypse]

"Do the actual heroes get really ticked about these, like with paparazzi rumors?" Topher wondered, examining the... interesting art in one of them. "Like is there a whole Leave Spidey alone! kind of thing?"

[ultron_junior]

"Oh yeah," Victor said. "And then you get the Authorized versions, where they take out anything interesting or" -- eyeroll - "classified."

[dollpocalypse]

"Ugh," Topher said dramatically, flopping on Alec's bed. "Boring. No one wants to read their glorified press releases."

He yawned. "So, dude, what are you doing now that we're out of here? Just general crime-fighting?"

[ultron_junior]

"Totally boring," Victor agreed, eying Topher's position but deciding not to say anything. Wasn't like Alec was going to sleep on that bed again. "And yeah, at first. Might hang out with my grandfather a little if my team's into it. You doing anything special before Stanford?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Not really," Topher said, tilting his head like he hadn't really thought about it yet. "I'll probably hang out at home, catch up on video games, maybe design an app. My mom suggested I do some European travel thing, but I don't wanna go places," he added, making a face.

[ultron_junior]

"You may as well go while you have the chance," Victor suggested lightly. "I mean, they'd pay for it, right? And I'm pretty sure Europe has wifi."