Television Sucks (open)

[Dante Russo]

Dante dropped his backpack and fell heavily into a cushioned chair. He was tired after a full day of classes, and he really just wanted to stare at the television. Of course, there were only a handful of things he could stand to watch. Everything on TV these days was completely asinine.

His cell phone buzzed in his pocket, and he pulled it out to look at it. It was one of those crappy old pay-as-you-go phones, and he squinted at the screen with a sigh. Jo Jo was trying to text him. Dante leaned back, sinking into the chair and looking up at the ceiling. He called Jo Jo.

"Hey. Jo. I can't read right now, my brain hurts. Is it important?" He let his eyes slip closed while he listened. "Ok.. Well fuck off then. I'm tired." He let his hand drop into his lap and blindly pressed the button to end the call.

After a minute he opened his eyes and looked toward the TV. He watched it silently for a moment. Slowly one of his eyebrows rose and his expression went from exhausted to incredulous.

"Okay," he said to the room, "who has the remote, and what is this crap we're watching?"

[Shane Yama-Turner]

Shane was feeling pretty great. It had been a quick day of classes, and his body didn't even hurt as much as it usually did on any given day. So he felt the need to capitalize on the feeling of joy that had risen up within him.

He didn't even notice the guy slumped in the chair as he picked up the remote to change the channel on the television set. He flipped through the channels quickly until he found something he wanted to watch. That was when Dante spoke up. Shane jumped, startled by the sudden noise.

After, he calmed down, he replied quietly with:"Oh, umm... it's Ultimate Spider-Man. Uh, I'm Shane."

[Dante Russo]

Dante leaned forward and looked at the kid with the remote, "Shane?" he confirmed the kid's name, then motioned to himself by resting his hand on his chest, "Dante." He sank back into his chair and covered his face with his hand. "Oh my god," he muttered quietly to himself, "I'm surrounded by children." He took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes before dropping his hand and leaning forward again to stare the kid down.

"But seriously!?" Dante fixed him with a look. One brow raised. Eyes narrowed. "How old are you? I don't have a problem with cartoons, but this is so juvenile--" Dante interrupted himself to cringe at some particularly punny dialogue coming from the TV.

"Ugh." He dragged his gaze away from Shane to scowl at the television. "It's just so bad..."

[Shane Yama-Turner]

Shane scratched the back of his head as the guy looked him over carefully. He did the same to him. He looked exhausted, and a little pissed. After he introduced himself as Dante, Shane put his arms down by his side. He frowned as Dante called him a child.

Shane shrugged, and said "I'm 17, and yeah, this show is pretty awful. I just watch because I like Spider-Man... and there's nothing else on.

[Dante Russo]

"Okay, I refuse to believe that there's nothing better than this." Dante squinted at the screen in distaste. "This seriously makes me want to gouge my eyes out."

Dante had never understood the obsession with superheroes. Jo Jo had a thing for batman, and Dante mocked him mercilessly whenever it came up. Really, Batman wasn't even that "super". He was just a normal dude with a lot of money.. who liked to run around with a boy in tights. And what was is with superheroes and spandex? It was kind of gay.

He turned his incredulous stare back to Shane. What he really wanted to watch was the news, which he realized was unusual for someone his age, so he wasn't even going to try for that. Dante's ears twitched at another round of horrible dialogue. "There has to be something better than this."

[Shane Yama-Turner]

Shane shrugged. "You're probably right. Let's see what's on TV. " Shane lifted the remote up and pointed it at the screen before flipping through the channels. There was a cooking show on... which would be nice if Shane could actually cook. The next channel wasn't much better... something about wedding dresses.

The channel flipping continued for a little while before Shane ran out of channels. Sighing, he decided to try one more time before calling it quits. Then he saw it. A show about two brothers hunting down evil supernatural beings.

He looked over at Dante before plopping down on a chair near him.

"What about this show, huh?"

[Dante Russo]

Dante stared at the TV with a bored expression while Shane channel surfed. God, why did everything suck? He couldn't believe people actually got paid to make this crap. Finally Shane settled on something. It wasn't a show Dante was familiar with, but whatever it was, it looked dumb.

Some fantasy bullshit. At least the writing wasn't horrendous. "Whatever," Dante said, "It doesn't make me wanna gouge my eyes out so.. yeah, it's fine." He stared at the screen for a minute before turning his head to look at Shane, who'd apparently decided to sit down near him.

That was weird. Either Dante wasn't being as bitchy as usual, or this dude was immune. He was pretty tired right now, maybe the snark just wasn't coming through full strength.

"So what's your deal?" He asked, regardless of whether it looked like Shane was trying to watch the television or not. "Telekinesis, invisibility, what?" One of the fun things about Hammel was all of the freaks walking around. You never knew what you were going to run into, and Dante liked learning stuff. He liked it even better if it didn't involve reading.

[Shane Yama-Turner]

He was intently watching the show while sitting near what he hoped would be a future friend (Maybe,the guy didn't seem too friendly), when Dante interrupted him. He snapped his eyes to observe the man while still intently listening to the TV. If there was anything his moms had taught him, it was to look at people while they were talking to you. Or at the very least while you were being interrogated.

"Um, I can shapeshift into any human form, yeah." He nodded briefly, as if to confirm it for both himself and Dante, before turning back to the television, just in time to see one of the main characters take his shirt off. He shook his head in disgust and continued watching.

[Dante Russo]

Dante let out a quiet sigh through his nose. Shane was more interested in the television, which was fine. Dante'd made him change the channel to something less asinine, so it was probably good that he wasn't totally annoyed with what they were watching now.

He watched Shane's face as his eyes went back to the screen. The kid shook his head, and Dante glanced at the screen, eyebrow arched. He leaned back into his chair, thinking. Wondering what had earned the disgusted expression. It was generally socially acceptable for men to walk around shirtless. Did it even count as partial nudity? Well, it probably wouldn't be on TV if it did. It's not like they were watching HBO or something. This show seemed sort of mainstream (well, mainstream for the fantasy genre anyway).

"Little prudish are we?" Dante commented, glancing sideways at Shane. Dante shouldn't really judge on that particular subject, but that never stopped him! He'd never been with anyone, except for-- well, never mind. He tried not to think about that. The point was that Dante could be pretty verbally crude sometimes, but it was all talk. He was pretty prudish himself when it came right down to it.

[Shane Yama-Turner]

Shane looked over at Dante while the shirtless scene continued, content to look at practically anything else while bare chested men were on screen. Dante had called him a prude? He had never really thought about it all that much, but he supposed that was correct. Only when it came to male nudity that was not his own, that is. "Yeah, I guess I am. Sometimes."

He waited a few moments, grabbing his notebook out of his backpack and proceeding to sketch out some designs for his superhero costume. That was something he worked on occasionally. He knew it was probably unrealistic to expect that he could actually be a superhero, but hey, a boy can dream, right?

After he was sure the shirtless scene was done, he looked up just in time to see the television promptly short out. Smoke rose from the top of the television.

"Well that's just great!"

[Dante Russo]

Dante continued looking at the screen, even though it truthfully made him slightly uncomfortable as well. Not because he had a problem with nudity or anything, but because he found being attracted to people weird, and awkward, and just straight-up uncomfortable. Oh, right, and he wasn't exactly out. Not that he had any friends to come out to-- except for Jo Jo, who knew already, but he wasn't here, so whatever. Anyway, the point was that Dante just called someone out for something that he, was actually guilty of too. So now he had to act like he wasn't uncomfortable.

Complicated. Dante made everything complicated.

Shane wasn't paying attention to him anyway so it didn't matter. Dante's eyebrows settled low as he stared at the television. He looked bored again, and maybe a little annoyed. That's sort of what his face always looked like, but right now he was doing it on purpose.

Then the TV had a small problem. It made a sort of "pff" noise, and smoked a little. Shane was immediately upset, and Dante broke his poker face.

"Ha!" He laughed, finding hilarity in misfortune. He threw his head back into the chair he was sitting in, mouth open, laughing out loud. "What the hell was that!?" He howled, pointing at the darkened screen, "it's fuckin' smokin' an' everything! Oh my god!" He pounded his fist on the arm of his chair a few tomes before he settled down with an audible sigh. "Oh, that's a little taste of home. Nuthin' ever works, man."

Dante wasn't entirely sure why he found it hilarious that there was smoke coming out of the television, but he did, and it honestly felt good to laugh. Maybe he was just tired.

[Shane Yama-Turner]

"Aaaargh! Why is this happening?"Shane cried. He crept over to the television set and slammed the top of it twice. Nothing happened. It was still as uncooperative as it had been before Shane hit it. "This is horrible! This television sucks!" he shouted before stomping back to his seat.

Well, now what? Dante was laughing at this incredibly unfunny (to Shane, at least) situation and Shane was kind of upset. He had legitimately wanted to watch some television, and now he couldn't because the student lounge had a crap television. He guessed he would just have to deal with it.

"Hey, uh, Dante? You never told me what your power was."

[Dante Russo]

Dante laughed a little louder when Shane flipped out at the television. He sank down into his chair, kicking his feet against the floor and covering his mouth. "Chill out, yo!" He called when Shane landed a fist on top of the TV. He sat up again and watched Shane literally stomp back to his seat. "Dude.." He cocked an eyebrow, smirking a little, "way to throw a total bitch-fit, man."

Dante took a deep breath to come back from his fit of laughter. Shane asked about his power, and Dante waved his hand dismissively. "Oh, I'm just a precog, man. It might be impressive, if I can figure out how to remember what I see." Dante rolled his eyes. "So basically, my power is getting wicked migraines." He made a sarcastic expression. "It's super exciting."