(no subject)

[zomboligist]

WHO: Ravi Chakrabarti
WHERE: Hospital / Casa di Helen & Mark
WHEN: Anytime between August 7 - 10
OPEN TO: Mark, Helen, Kira, Major
WARNINGS: n/a

---

It ought to be strange, really, taking your best friend from a world before and hiking him around for all your new friends to meet, but Ravi is somewhat determined to make sure that the people he feels closest to here really do like Major, especially seeing as he's going to end up picking up his life and moving in with him, mainly in an attempt to reclaim some of home again, but also because it's Major. How can he not move in with him and have incredible roomie shenanigans, again?

"They're going to love you," he vows, promising Major like he's the one who needs the pep talk instead of Ravi who needs a little bit of encouragement to sort of get over the fear that any of his friends are going to meet Major and, well, and not like him. He takes Major by the shoulders and stares at him like he's about to give him some sort of sports-related pep talk.

He doesn't, though, mainly because it would just make Major cringe and then Ravi would cringe with embarrassment and generally, it just wouldn't go over well. There's no time like the present, though, which is why he steers Major in the direction of the door, one hand draped around his shoulders like he's proudly showing off his latest creation (even if that sort of mad science has never been his bag of cats), plastering a broad smile on his face.

"Guess who has two thumbs and found a best friend?" he says, gesturing to himself, then to Major, then quickly back to himself. "I'd like to introduce you to Major Lilywhite. Yes, that is his name," Ravi says. "It's an unfortunate American thing, I think."

Comments

[majorlyugh]

Major hasn't often worried about meeting a ____'s _____, whether it be a girlfriend's parents, or a friend's friend(s), or something of the sort. When Liv had introduced him to her parents, it had gone so well that her mother more or less asked Major during the middle of dinner when he would be proposing to her daughter. He'd played it off, laughing along and treating it like a bit of a joke, even though he'd actually had the ring in his pocket the whole time (he didn't propose until some time later, but he made a habit of keeping the thing on him almost all the time, sort of to mentally prep himself for the actual proposal). But .. for whatever reason .. Major's a tad nervous to meet Ravi's new friends.

Especially the handsome Earthling who'd spent time on Mars. He's curious about him the most, probably, if only because Ravi had made so many comparisons between them both.

"I feel like I should've dressed nicer," he says, tugging at the hem of his magenta scrub top. He'd wanted other clothes (what he wouldn't do for a tshirt), but he hadn't come with any. All he could do, based on the advice that Lucrezia had given him, was ask for it. Obnoxiously often. Like he was trying to prove to friggin' Santa that he'd been a Good Boy all year and didn't deserve a lump of coal in his stocking this year. "None of your stuff fit me," he mumbles. He'd tried a couple of Ravi's shirts (maybe without telling him), but they'd all been a little too clingy for Major's liking.

When Ravi puts his hands on his shoulders, Major winces a little, bracing himself for an awkward Dad Pep Talk, and heaves a sigh of relief when it doesn't come.

"Thanks, coach. That was a real motivator. I'm gonna get the big touchdown and win the whole game for everyone now! It's like you took a scene straight from Remember the Titans, and I'm definitely more prepared now than I was --" But he's through the door and shoved in the faces of the three other people - two men and a woman, it would seem - smiling as warmly as he can manage. His gaze lingers on who he assumes to be the handsome Earthing who'd spent time on Mars before drifting over to the woman, who he assumes is Ravi's immortal girlfriend, then to the younger of the two men who seems .. well, sad. But an existential kind of sad. He gives a one-handed wave. "It has nothing to do with being American," he says, glaring at Ravi before turning back towards the others, "And everything to do with having a hippie for a mother." He elbows Ravi in the ribs playfully.

"But, uh. Yeah. That really is my name, so it's nice to meet you all."

[3ofswords]

As they're all adults here, and three of the five people in the room live with or grow the stuff, Kira has been using Ravi's odd gathering as an opportunity to test out the weird kid's home-made paper for rolling joints. As the whole entrance and introduction plays on, he makes a third attempt at closing the ends, sucking a soft noise through his teeth at how it starts to unravel.

The paper is too thick, and at best he might flatten the whole thing, seal it with spit, and hope that the fact that it's mostly plant materials makes it safe to light on fire and suck down.

It does put him in the subjectively awkward position of standing there, holding a poorly pinched joint up for inspection, when Major seems to address them and expect a response. Kira is nothing if not good at first impressions.

"Do most hippies really name their sons after military ranks," is his brilliant followup, rolling the paper a little tighter and deciding they only live once. It's a keeper, just like he is.

[zomboligist]

"I like to think it's because he was already too good-looking as a child and his parents decided to saddle him with an unfortunate name to make sure that he didn't have it too easy in life," is his sarcastic reply, smiling at Major like he's telling him that he's sweet and beautiful and not that he needs to be hobbled to be able to let the others compete for a little while.

He isn't sure why there's so much pot in this house, but he sighs and digs out the old box he has, throwing it at Kira, because it has a few wrappers left inside from the last party he'd had, which he's been keeping under his bed on the off chance he'll need that for pain mediation. "Not too many," is all he warns.

[majorlyugh]

"Ugh," Major says with a good-natured roll of his eyes. "My mom was just, you know. Free spirit. Pot smoker. Not - not while she was pregnant with me, but before. So I don't know. She probably wanted to be different and unique, and so she gave me Major as a name. I'm sure she thinks she was setting me up for success, back when she chose it. But we can go with my parents wanted me to suffer, if that helps," he adds, sharing a pointed look with Ravi.

He watches Kira struggle to roll up a joint and wishes he could offer some kind of assistance. But being in sports for the majority of his life, complete with random and frequent drug tests, he's never really had a chance to get all that into the stuff. But he looks at Ravi, a bit surprised, after he tosses the box over to Kira.

"So this is what you've been doing with your time since you've gotten here, huh?"

[3ofswords]

"I've been corrupting him," Kira says, looking between the pair as he accepts the gift. "But apparently he's been holding out on me up until this moment; I guess your being here softened him up."

It's a bit poorly timed for Kira, a sting on the tail end of losing another friend and a reminder that his own friends and family are almost a year behind him, possibly and probably never to be seen again. Part of him wishes he could do it--just move on, just attach himself to this place, but the nature of the canyon doesn't make it easy. Maybe it should be a better sign: his powers returning, Ravi getting a friend. Someone he knows could be coming behind them.

It doesn't feel like that, though, and he uses the moment of rolling the joint and pocketing only one of the papers for later, a nod of thanks to Ravi, and trying to resist the urge to immediately extract himself and find a light. Powers or no, he can stand in a room of adults and behave without drugs. He's been managing that for years now. "My mom named me after a sound effect," Kira says, "so really, I shouldn't judge, but I'm an incredibly judgmental person, so I'm going to." His smile shows his teeth. "I don't think parents want us to suffer, they're just resigned to the fact that we will."

[zomboligist]

Ravi doesn't actually know as much about Major's home life as he'd like to, which mainly comes down to him being an absolutely nosy bastard, so he's listening intently to Major describing his childhood with starry eyes, staring at him as if in wonder. "He's been attempting to corrupt me," Ravi feels compelled to clarify, because there was probably already some corruption existing in his soul.

It's not like he'd been an angel beforehand, after all. "Wait, a sound effect, which sound effect?" He turns to Major, as if he's ready for a brainstorming session. "Bird?" he suggests. "Karate chop? Creaking door," he says instantly, snapping his fingers like he's figured it out.

[majorlyugh]

Throughout Ravi looking at him like he's the next World Wonder, Major's stealing sideways, confused glances at his friend while giving the bulk of his attention to Kira. He wonders if this is how Babineaux feels whenever Ravi gets too close to him or says something weirdly random and often times inappropriate. He realizes, after he's done speaking, that it's because they've never talked much about life prior to the whole zombie business, for whatever reason. It isn't that Major's necessarily an overly secretive person (he doesn't want someone prying through all his stuff or, in the Shawna's case, posting their private conversations and photos online for all the world to see), but his family life was a little .. complicated. He isn't super proud of how he handled it growing up, so it makes him a little less willing to share information surrounding it.

"Hey, I'm already used to be judged thanks to this guy," he pats Ravi on the back, "So it's really nothing I'm not already used to. You can start with my name and then build your list out from there. I'm sure you and Ravi could compare notes about what terrible choices I make." He pauses. "A sound effect? Huh." He turns towards Ravi.

"Which one --" But Ravi's already beaten him to it, causing Major to laugh. "Ki-ra. Ki-ra. Ki-raaaa. Creaking door? Karate chop? Racist, dude! I don't know why, but I picture like, a shining river? A creek?" He leans in a bit closer, beginning to softly sing: "To laugh like a brook when it trips and falls ...." waiting for Ravi to finish the last bit of it.

[3ofswords]

"I see we're already at the point where a trio of friends is just two ganging up on a third in different combinations," Kira says, though there's little ire in it. It's a social gathering, it's meeting someone new--it feels a kind of right, to endure the ribbing as he takes measure of Major. Eventually they'll team up against Ravi, and everything will be right in the world.

Or just this small part of it.

Until then, the lack of balance has him rolling another joint: even if the other two don't want to share, the group in the house is large enough that he could use a buffer against the impressions of Ravi's guests. Now that it's back, there's been no sign of them disappearing again. "I guess it isn't really a sound effect, it's just--they write it on manga pages when something's supposed to be sparkling. It's not a "real" name," he says, lifting the unlit joint to do the air quotes.

[zomboligist]

"In our defense, it was very easy to gang up on Liv and often fun," Ravi supplies helpfully, like that's going to end up working for him instead of just being another reason that they're actually terrible people. He can't help but shrug, though, blissful in his knowledge that he actually gets to have this again.

He really did think that he'd never see anyone from home again in his life, which is a hard thing to come to grips with when that's the last thing you want to think about. "So, were you a sparkling baby then?" he deadpans, but he can't help it, he really can't. "I mean, maybe a glitter in your tiny newborn eyes," he says. "You were probably an adorable baby and I'm not one of those people who thinks they're all cute. I have seen some ugly ones," he promises.

[markwatney]

There's an air to all of this that feels a bit "meeting the parents" that I find odd, but then again, Ravi is a little odd, and I can't hold it against the new guy. I'll just keep to feeling appreciative that I apparently hold an important enough role to be considered for Major's formal unveiling.

"Mark," I say, and step forward to offer my hand for what I'm guessing will be a firm, manly shake. The guy just has that look. "It's good to finally meet you, I wish it was better circumstances. Ravi talks about you a lot."

Noticing Kira out of the corner of my eye as I step back, I murmur his way, "You need to carve a pipe."

[zomboligist]

"I talk about you a reasonable amount," Ravi is quick to interrupt and clarify, giving Mark an accusatory how dare you look for telling the truth and making him seem like some sort of clingy girlfriend when really, he thinks that he talks about Major appropriately for someone who misses his best friend with all the longing and the...

Okay, maybe he talks about Major too much, but it's not like he can talk about Liv or Clive in depth without getting into the whole zombie thing, in depth. "Don't encourage him," he gripes, about Kira. "I don't need this to become the pot house, it used to be so respectable when I lived here."

[majorlyugh]

"Mark, cool. It's nice to meet you," Major says, reaching out for the guy's hand and, true to form, giving him a firm shake. One of the things his dad taught him from when he was a kid - no 'floppy fish' handshakes here. "I mean, it could be worse, right?
We could be caught in England or something." Ahem.

"You know, I'm inclined to believe Mark," Major says, stabbing at the man in question with his thumb, glancing towards Ravi. "He seems like an honest sorta guy. I also know you well enough to know that you were absolutely talking about me a lot, and I can only imagine what sort of things you were saying about me." He turns towards Mark.

"Tell me later what he said, and I'll tell you if it was crap or not."

[markwatney]

There's obviously some kind of inside joke there about England that I've missed, but I just let it sail by. It's not the best time for explanations, and with the weirdness these two have come from, it could be lengthy, horrifying or both.

"Mostly my being a substitute for you, with the occasional implication that I don't quite measure up," I reply with a soft snort. It really hadn't been that bad, just a little odd. Not unlike this entire presentation, or the fact that Ravi's moving out of his girlfriend's house to live with this guy in apparent heterosexual bliss. Not that I'm complaining, really; at least it'll be quieter.

[zomboligist]

"I tried not to be too obvious," Ravi says, which should be a guilty joke, but he means it sincerely. For a long while, he'd missed home to a staggering degree that he didn't like to talk about because it just made him sad. It's still strange and wonderful and amazing to have Major around, if only for someone who knows all the same people and the situation and when he talks about zombies, it doesn't have to be preluded with, 'I swear I'm not crazy'. "I still insist I begged for Mars stories far more than I've ever once in my life asked Major for football anecdotes," he guarantees.

"Science versus sports, you know where my heart lies," he informs Major with a shrug of his shoulders, like it's been written in the stars. Or on Mars, in this case. In potatoes, no less!

[majorlyugh]

"Ah, geez, sorry about that," Major says to Mark, ducking his head a bit sheepishly. He doesn't like being compared or measured up to anyone, so the fact that Ravi's done that to Mark makes Major feel a twinge awkward. "If it's any consolation, Ravi did tell me he tried to replace me with you, a handsome man who'd spent time on Mars. So, you have that going for you. Also, I have to admit, whenever I think of Mars, I think of Marvin the Martian and his green dog, and I cannot, for the life of me, imagine anything else. You've probably gotten a million questions about what it's like, but if you have like, a pamphlet about it that I can read, I'll be happy to." He's joking. Sort of. He really wants to hear about Mars, but he imagines people turn into the Inquisition around a guy like Mark, wanting to know every detail. While he's eager to hear the stories, he also doesn't want to annoy the guy straight off the bat.

If .. he hasn't already.

"First of all," he says, turning towards Ravi, "I'm glad you're finally coming around to calling the sport 'football' instead of always using the term to refer to soccer. Of course, it makes no sense for American Football to be called football, but that is besides the point. Secondly, I tried to make them as relevant as I possibly could to all of our conversations! God, I wonder what Carroll's up to these days. I wonder who they've gotten in the draft. I'm going to imagine it's the exact same as my Fantasy Football lineup, because there's no way to prove it isn't true."

[markwatney]

"I resigned myself to telling stories about Mars for the rest of my life long before I ended up here," I reply with a chuckle. "I don't mind it. People tend to find it more interesting than the minutia of crop-tending, which is what I usually spend my time worrying about. I suppose I should be glad I have stories people want to hear."

Truthfully, I'm proud of Mars. That is, of my time there and how I survived, not the planet itself, which did just about all it could to kill me. Early on, I had a fair few people worried about asking about it -- Friends who were afraid I had PTSD and would feel pressured to talk. But it's never really been like that.

[zomboligist]

"I mean, I personally would be very interested in your methods against blights and other crop-killing bacteria and how they cross-interact with human diseases," Ravi feels compelled to insist with a raise of his hand, but even he sort of likes the stories about Mars a little better, because they make the childish space-farer in him sit up and pay more attention.

Who wouldn't want to think about travelling to Mars and facing every challenge? Of course, now that he's older, all that he thinks about in that case is how many variables might kill you, but then, working for the CDC had brought out the worrywart in him.

[notsocommon]

"It's a perfectly acceptable name. I'm English, it's not like we do any better," Helen said, extending a hand to Major to introduce herself properly. She hoped that Ravi has done something of an introduction but knowing Ravi and the strangeness of their relationship, she had no idea what she'd been introduced as.

Helen, having passed two centuries well long ago due to an accident with time travel, felt that she was far past being introduced as someone's girlfriend. What, then, was she to Ravi? No time to muse on it now. Now she had to make introductions and correct any misconceptions.

"Dr. Helen Magnus," she offered. "It's an absolute pleasure to meet someone from Ravi's home. He's told me so much about it over the past several months."

[zomboligist]

Ravi's been mainly worried about this, because while it's nice that Major is meeting Mark and Kira, it's really Helen that he wants Major to get along with. Maybe a few months ago, it wouldn't have been the same importance, but she's gone from a friend with plentiful benefits to someone that he really likes, a proper girlfriend, and he doesn't want that messed up because of some light disapproval on either side.

Ravi keeps a hopeful, open look on his face, his gaze sliding between the two of them like it's Wimbledon (he really wishes it were, he wants strawberries right now). "She's quite in the loop," he tells Major, giving him a nod of his head to let him know that all conversation topics are on the table, for Helen.

[majorlyugh]

"See? You seem to be what would be a reasonable Brit, unlike this guy over here, who will argue with me about how much," he makes air quotes, ""knowledge" I've gleaned from Downton Abbey," he says to Helen, before glaring over at Ravi.

"It was on Masterpiece Theatre, Ravi! Masterpiece Theatre! It's classy and at least a little historically accurate, okay?" He turns back towards Helen with a bit of a playful huff before taking her hand and offering a firm but friendly handshake.

"Ah, do you - uh. I guess I call you Doctor Magnus, right? I've heard about you. The thing I seem to remember most is that you're, uh. Immortal? And that you've obviously, no offense, got something wrong with you if you've taken up with this guy and it wasn't through coercion or underhanded means." He reaches out to pat Ravi on the shoulder with a laugh.

"Just kidding. Sort of." But Ravi's comment piques Major's interest, so he lifts both eyebrows. "Like - how in the loop? Totally in the loop? Half-way in the loop? Standing at the center of the loop like that scene at the end of the 40 Year Old Virgin?"

[notsocommon]

"You can call me Helen, if you like. Ravi and I are dating, it'd be a little ridiculous to insist that you call me by my professional title," Helen said, a little bemused at the sudden outpouring of popular culture. Major was young (as was Ravi) and Helen had to remind herself that she was ancient in more ways than one. It was natural enough to feel a little behind the curve when it came to the cultural zeitgeist.

"I'm aware of the particular effects of a certain drug interaction that Ravi described to me, if that's the loop you're describing to me. It's not the mechanism for zombification in my experience but I've seen them myself - it's quite real. I operate under the principle that everything is possible."

[zomboligist]

Ravi makes a gesture to symbolize a loop, a circle, with his fingers, and gives Major a knowing nod as Helen explains. "The whole loop," he promises. "The one that includes you and Liv and the biochemistry theories behind it, which I hadn't even shared with you, so maybe more in the loop than you are," he confesses.

"Guess what," he tells Helen, bright and eager about something that no one has probably ever been. "He's fully human again, as if the water stripped away the disease. That means there can be a working cure that doesn't relapse and strip a person's memory!"

[majorlyugh]

"Helen, then. Okay. I don't know, I've known some pretty tight-ass people who insisted on being called Doctor at every opportunity. I had a guy, a professor, who had a doctorate of like, English? Or something? And he came into class once, talking about how hard he'd fought to try to get "doctor" written on his wedding invitations, and he was pissed that it was reserved for the medical kind only." Major smiles pleasantly, a default state of being when medical science talk is happening, and he isn't entirely sure what's being said, but knows it sounds important.

"Ugh, rude," he replies to Ravi, nudging him with an elbow.

"Oh, yeah - that's true! Though I did come in with residual side effects. But a shock to the system - meaning, Ravi very terribly pushed me into the water without warning - seemed to have knocked the last bit of it out of me, and then I was just .. myself again." He leans into Helen, as though sharing a secret. "You'd think a best friend would appreciate their best friend, no matter what sort of mental state they were in, but apparently, Teenage Girl Brain Major is too much for this guy," he gestures towards Ravi with his thumb.

[notsocommon]

Helen laughed softly. "I think the teenage girl is a creature that anyone should be wary of. Considering I raised one, I speak from experience. Teenage girls are absolutely harrowing creatures."

It had been a long time since she'd spoken of Ashley and while this was a passing mention, it felt strange to talk about her and not feel a pang of guilt and regret. Hmm. "So, how did you and Ravi come to be friends, then? You seem an unlikely pair."

[zomboligist]

Ravi would joke along a little more, but he doesn't remember Helen mentioning anything about a teenaged girl, which makes him more than a little wary because he knows that she's older, obviously, but it's not like he's been on top of asking about every single detail of every part of her life. Having a daughter, though, that's a bit much for him to process and he shuts down for a minute, going a bit silent before he realizes that Helen's asked a question.

"Liv," he blurts out, suddenly. "Liv arranged for us to meet one another when I was looking for a roommate."