Fifty-Sixth Theory [Action]

[i_speak_softly]

((Forward-dated to Sunday the 26th, after the village has cleaned up from the ice storm.))


[That was a good last try, Winter, but you are rapidly losing your hold over this ectotherm. He was trapped in C5 for several days, after Luke Skywalker’s guests shook off their movie-marathon stupor to realize they were iced in, but since making it safely back to House 55 he’s been increasingly alert and moving around with greater purpose.]

[Today he put on his heated snowsuit and struck out across the snowy village to the library. He had found this puzzle-box among his things, and he wants to work on it without his housemates hanging over his shoulders.]

[He also wants to strike up a conversation with anyone who so much as glances at him. Cold weather and semi-torpor don’t present many opportunities for socializing, and the normally-quiet Turtle has a lot of pent-up conversation in need of an outlet. It won’t be at his normal intellectual level, but it should at least be better than it has been in recent weeks.]


((Feel free to help Don with the puzzle-box, but I don’t want it to be opened yet.))

Comments

[herotypical]

Is that a not-so-subtle hint to also not ask any?

[ she picks it up. pauses a moment before giving it a go. ]

[i_speak_softly]

It's okay. I'm tired of getting questions from the same people.

[herotypical]

And I'm guessing these aren't the fun kinda questions like -- hey, Donnie, what do you want for lunch?

[ she also has a name slip-up; blame the fact that she frequently calls her little sister 'dawnie'. ]

[i_speak_softly]

[Don doesn't mind - he kind of wishes people would call him that more often.]

Not really. [But enough of that subject.] What have you been doing this winter?

[herotypical]

Skating. Training. Taking in strays. Lots of this and that.

[ and being proposed to and planning grand heroic plans. but those two things aren't exactly pleasant chit-chat. ] And trying not to freeze. I'm really more of a summer gal.

[i_speak_softly]

[He nods.] I know what you mean.

[herotypical]

...I guess the typical terrarium sun-lamp doesn't really come in your size.

[i_speak_softly]

They make them for people too.

[herotypical]

Tanning beds, you mean? Come on. Do I look like the kinda gal with a lot of tanning bed experience?

[ teasing; sweet. ]

[i_speak_softly]

[Don can still recognize a joke when he hears one.]

They're called spectrum bulbs. They're for - for -- [And there it goes.] They're good for something that humans get.

[herotypical]

Get? What -- like a disease?

[i_speak_softly]

Sort of? They have something, and... the lamps make them feel better.

[herotypical]

Are you...feeling a-okay, Donnie?

[i_speak_softly]

[He sighs.]

I'm still dumb, aren't I.

[herotypical]

Still...?

Well -- if it's any consolation? You're clearly not as dumnb as I am, as I say huh? You're like...Mister Smarty-Pants. Or you would be.

If you wore pants.

[i_speak_softly]

[... That is so much like something Mike would say. Don can't help smiling.]

[herotypical]

[ she drops casually into a seat across from him. ]

I think I need some annotations here. Just to get my comprehension off the ground. Why are you dumb? Or, more accurately, why are you saying that you are?

[i_speak_softly]

Winterbrain.

[That answers everything, right?]

[herotypical]

W-winter...brain.

[ no. no it doesn't. ]

[i_speak_softly]

... Torpor?

[herotypical]

What? Like hibernation?

[i_speak_softly]

[Nod - close enough.]

[herotypical]

...That's gotta be rough for you.

[i_speak_softly]

[He shrugs.] Not really.

[herotypical]

...What's it like? Is that too rude to ask?