06 | video

[oceanthief]

[the feed is set to video, but Lapis seems only nominally interested in achieving a steady recording of her face. she's turned it on for another purpose, and the quality of everything else up until that point is really unimportant to her. at least gems don't have naturally shaky hands, even if the camera keeps trailing off into nothing now and then before she rights it, almost absent-mindedly.]

How long are you supposed to wait to be sure that someone's been ported out? I've seen people say stuff like 'a while', but humans and gems don't really seem to have the same idea of what a long time actually is.

I haven't seem someone who lives in this house with me for - [shit, fuck. Lapis' expression stutters into hesitance as she realizes that she has no idea how long she's been not seeing him, nor does she remember any useful earth calendar terms beyond month and year.] - I haven't really seen him lately. But he's kind of stupid and scared of me, so I don't know if that's on purpose or not.

[she gives a lopsided shrug, as if to say 'what can you do?' humans were a crazy weird little species, and she's given up trying to fix their misconceptions on a lot of things. if Hyunsoo wanted to think she was out to kill him, let him. he was the one looking dumb, not her.]

...I've got something else to ask, too.

[this is the reason that she'd switched the video on. Lapis' nose scrunches in a cross between disgust and bafflement before she swings the camera around to zero in on - the fridge?

without further ado, a little blue hand sneaks back into frame to swing the refrigerator door open. have you ever seen food left to its own devices for a little over a month, imPorts? if not, here's your prime chance to some front row seats because that is exactly what this fridge is full of.

clearly it's been a while since Hyunsoo was last here.]

Is food supposed to look like that?

Comments

Video

[dachizone]

[Wow! She's blue! And so is that food!]

That's food?

[oceanthief]

[she's aggressively blue and aggressively confused. just another day in the life of a stranded alien.]

That's what you're supposed to put in here, isn't it?

[dachizone]

You do! But when it looks like...that! [Then it starts looking like his roommates cooking.]

You can't eat it if it changes colour! Or grows fur! [.....wait a second...]

Have you been eating it while it's like that??!!!?

[oceanthief]

[oh, she should probably clarify. Lapis blinks once and then waves a hand dismissively.]

No, I don't eat. This is whatever the human who lives here gets for himself; I don't really look in here that often, so I have no idea what color it started as.

video

[disguarded]

[Hey, look! It's someone who could possibly match Lapis in energy and emotion!]

I don't know about the first question, I'm sorry, but food like that is usually too rotted for humans to eat safely.

[oceanthief]

Are you sure? I feel like I've kind of seen something similar before.

[it's not her fault that carnival food looks so similar to...whatever's incubating in the fridge. any alien would make the same mistake.]

[disguarded]

Pretty sure. There are a lot of foods I've never seen before, but those look like familiar ones, only rotten.

[oceanthief]

[well, this woman seems reasonably human. Lapis is willing to accept her judgement, and does so with a flat little shrug.]

I guess I'll clean it out later, then. He can get something else if he wants to.

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[sasaeru]

... Regardless of whether or not your housemate is in this world or not, that level of spoiled is probably a health hazard.

They aren't supposed to look like that at all unless you meant to create a jungle of mold in your house.

[oceanthief]

I didn't put any of it here, so I don't really know what it looked like in the first place.

[Lapis has been to county fairs and carnivals thanks to the weird pastiche of events in this world; after those experiences this could be perfectly normal human food for all she knew.]

He's really the only one that it'd bother, so that's why I was asking.

[sasaeru]

Probably not so.. fuzzy, or grey.

I don't know if he'll be back to care, but it's still probably best to clean it.

[oceanthief]

He'd probably care more about me touching it than it being gross.

[she says as she draws some water from the nearby faucet to manipulate into starting the cleaning process while she chats on the comm. thank god for multitasking powers.]

[mischiefsmith]

Well according to some Midgardian laws, the rule of thumb is you can declare a person missing after 24 hours. I suppose it's safe to assume that, if you've not seen hide nore hair of this roommate of yours after 24 hours, then they are, indeed, no longer here. I could be wrong.

[And he's been wrong before, but it's not known to happen often. Prove him wrong.

And now on to the abomination that is the food in the refrigerator. Wow, what a hellacious disservice to the world of mortal foods. It's truly horrific, which is why Loki ought to have fun with it.]

I am sitting on this side of the camera, I cannot rightly tell, you'll have to smell it to be certain.

[oceanthief]

It's...probably been more than twenty-four hours.

[those were the big units they used in a single solar cycle, right? it sounds right, anyway. she's willing to pretend it's right if anyone decides to test her on the matter.]

What should it smell like? I haven't seen most of this stuff before.

[mischiefsmith]

Hmmm...well if the sun has come up and gone down once and the moon has risen and faded into the dawn thereafter then you are probably safe in assuming they are gone.

[Loki can be more specific if you like.]

We'll go with potetncy. If there is a very strong smell then it's likely bad, if it smells mild in there, then you should be alright.

[You're definitely not alright.]

[mischiefsmith]

What about pyrite?

[Loki's an ancient being who's done his fair share of interdimensional travel, he's not easily diswayed.]

[text]

[voicelessresistance]

From what I have read, people sometimes come back months after they left, but it's rare.

If it's been more than a few weeks, they're probably gone.

[oceanthief]

[uh. shit. shit, she's got no idea how long he's actually been not in the house. play it cool, Lazuli. lie your ass off.]

It's probably been a few weeks. I guess I can start cleaning out his stuff, then.

[voicelessresistance]

Probably.
He may have friends or family who want his things, though.

video

[h2no]

Yyyyyikes! I don't know that guy but I can basically smell that stuff from here! You might as well burn the entire fridge at this rate...

[oceanthief]

That seems kind of stupid. It hasn't damaged the actual fridge at all.

[things that gems don't understand alongside metaphors: hyperbole. besides, she has water powers. burning's not on the table, dude.]

[h2no]

What? I don't mean literally! I just mean it's gonna need a real deep cleaning before it's saf--

Wait.

What have you been eating?

video

[am_i_a_monster]

If he's scared of you, give him some space.

And no, food shouldn't look like that. Not if you're planning to eat it. It might work as compost.

[oceanthief]

I wasn't really planning on doing anything with it; it just looked kind of funny when I was getting some water.

[as to the other topic, which is apparently less important than potentially spoiled food...]

He's always got space. I just want to know whether or not I should start clearing out his things.

[am_i_a_monster]

It must smell bad too.

Are his things in your way?