Keeping Occupied

[mapquest-titan.livejournal.com]

Cale stood in the media library in one of the pod-rooms, the broken pod-room, to be exact. His brow was creased and his nose scrunched up as he concentrated on the bizarre-looking terminal on the wall. He pressed one of the buttons and got a low ‘beep’ in reply, but the screen remained blank. He tried another. Another beep, still blank. He frowned but he wasn’t giving up. With practically nothing to do on this ship—what with the medbay taken over by the crabby green guy and this being the only other area left on the ship (the sensoriums were almost in constant use by other crew members) with any kind of identifiable technological aspect to it, Cale was determined to at least keep himself busy. And busy meant trying to TURN THAT DAMN SONG OFF!

Over and over the thing had repeated. Never stopping. Never giving even a moment’s break, and with the door wide open and it playing full volume, it was impossible to concentrate anywhere else in the media library—which is what he’d been trying to do earlier. Now, he was determined to fix what was broken…or at least drive himself crazy trying.

Beep. Beep-beep. Beep. Beep-beep-beep. Beep-beep. Beep. Beep.

There! Right there! He’d had it. It went away but he’d still had it, if only for an instant. The screen flashed for just a moment and then went black again. He was making progress, getting closer. It was just a matter of time before that painstakingly awful song was gone for good.

“Yeah, and you thought I couldn’t do it, didn’t you,” Cale said aloud, apparently speaking to the troublesome terminal. “Well, I’ve got news for you buddy, I am about to own you.”

Comments

[mapquest-titan.livejournal.com]

"Yeah...'booties'--" He sounded so awkward saying the word. Almost like a parent using for the first time the latest slang terms. Or, worse, out of date slang. How cute! Future-boy is trying to be cool! "--are good. I mean, yeah, I like them, too."

Awkward pause!

[daaayum.livejournal.com]

She has this funny look on her face, like a smirk, but when you're trying not to smirk because you don't want someone to think you're laughing at them or something.

"You ever even seen a girl before you wound up here?"

[mapquest-titan.livejournal.com]

"Huh? Yeah! I mean, a few. Here and there. On the drifter colonies mainly. But that was when I was fifteen."

[daaayum.livejournal.com]

"So until recently, you hadn't been around girls for, like, four whole years?" she goes back to her book, though, um, discreetly saves the place where she found those pictures. This media pad is now for her personal use, kthx, Stacy.

"That explains a whole lot."

[mapquest-titan.livejournal.com]

"Oh yeah, Miss Know-It-All, like what?" Cale challenged, folding his arms across his chest as if daring Leela to impress him with her wisdom.

[daaayum.livejournal.com]

"It explains the whole hopeless awkward thing. 'I like booties, too, hur hur.' Y'all need to be a little more sick. If I was a girl you were trying to impress, that wouldn't fly. They'd think you were creepy or somethin'. And there's lots of girls our age on this ship, so you play it slick and you could actually get somewhere with one if you liked her."

[mapquest-titan.livejournal.com]

"Whaa...? I was agreeing with you!" Cale retorted. "You said booties were good. I just agreed with you. Isn't that what girls are supposed to want? Guys to agree with them?"

[daaayum.livejournal.com]

"No."

[mapquest-titan.livejournal.com]

Cale started to become a little worried. "You really think I'm creepy?" he asked. Whoa! Suddenly Leela's opinion matters? Look! Progress!

[daaayum.livejournal.com]

"I don't, but--" How to explain teenage social structure. "Sit down."

She pats the seat next to her.

"See, I'm thinkin', since you never had a lot of people around, you don't know how...a lot of people are with each other. Hell, you didn't know what I meant when talking about the magical negro thing the other day, and I never got to explain that either."

[mapquest-titan.livejournal.com]

Cale eyed her warily as he sat next to her and listened. He didn't like what he was hearing. "You think I'm socially retarded, don't you?"

[daaayum.livejournal.com]

"Just a tiny bit. You're actually less bad than many people I've known who've grown up around other people. But still a tiiiiny bit."

[mapquest-titan.livejournal.com]

"Just because I don't know what a thong or a magic negro are?" Cale asked. "Exactly how far in the past are you from, anyway?"

[daaayum.livejournal.com]

She laughs at him saying the magic negro thing so casually. Hoo boy.

"2002. I'm figuring from all you've said that you're from the future."

[mapquest-titan.livejournal.com]

"Two-thousand..." Cale repeats. His mouth practically hit the floor. "You're kidding, right? That's over a thousand years ago..."

[daaayum.livejournal.com]

"Wow, so you're from waaay in the future, huh. Although it's probably another universe's future. "

[mapquest-titan.livejournal.com]

Another chill ran up Cale's spine. "Wow...I feel kind of gross now. Dirty."

[daaayum.livejournal.com]

"...why?"

[mapquest-titan.livejournal.com]

"Because, I was starting to think..." And then he realized what he was about to say before he said it. THANKFULLY! "...uh...nothing. No reason. Nevermind."

[daaayum.livejournal.com]

"Think what?" Now she's curious.

[mapquest-titan.livejournal.com]

"Nothing."

He shifted awkward in his seat.

[daaayum.livejournal.com]

She pokes him in the side.

"C'mon, fess up."

[mapquest-titan.livejournal.com]

"No! It's nothing."

He tried to dodge her poking, to no avail.

"Stop that! I'm serious. I wasn't thinking anything."

[daaayum.livejournal.com]

There's more poking. It devolves to downright tickling. The plantsuits are thin enough that it can be felt.

[mapquest-titan.livejournal.com]

And there is laughing. Yes, even nineteen year old boys from a thousand years in the future are ticklish. "Stop it!" he repeated several times, first insisting and eventually devolving into pleading for her to quit.

"OKAY! Okay. Okay, okay. I'll tell you. I'll tell you," he finally relented when his pleas for mercy went unheard.