Full Circle

Chapter 5

"Okay, so, shipping is when you think two people are or should be together. You know, like, better than just friends."

Otis looked at Olympia with confusion. "You mean like best friends?"

"Um, not quite Otis. More like...Romeo and Juliet."

"Or Han Solo and Princess Leia," Oona provided.

"Or Lizzie and Darcy from Pride and Prejudice."

"Or The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman."

"The who?"

Oona sighed. "Does no one have an appreciation for 70s television here? The Six Million Dollar Man! Steve Austin? Listen, you remember the whole 'I joined because your earlobes shouldn't do this' thing when we were shooting those promos?"

"Yeaaaaaahhhhh?"

"Well that noise was from The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman. They were having a double marathon on tv the night before and somehow the sound got stuck in my earlobes, heh. Anyways, Steve Austin, the Six Million Dollar Man, was in a plane crash, and they put him back together as a cyborg! Which in itself is really cool, but later on he took his girlfriend, Jaime Summers, skydiving, and she got into a horrible accident, and Steve begged them to put her back together with cybernetics too, but she died. And then they brought her back! And everyone in the 70s shipped them, even though shipping wasn't really a thing yet and they weren't... Well, I don't want to spoil it. Incidentally, the usage for the word 'cybernetics' hit its peak in the years—"

"Oona, you're rambling," Olympia cut in. "Anyways, the point of this is that shipping is wanting two people to be a couple. Do you get it now? "

Otis smiled brightly. "Yep! I completely understand."

"You still don't understand, do you?" Oona half-stated, arms crossed.

"Nope, not a clue. Do you think you could repeat all of that?" Otis replied, leaning in towards them, eyebrows furrowed.

Olympia sighed. "This is gonna take a very long time."

* * * * *

"Hi Oscar!" Olive called brightly. "What's the plan for this evening?"

"Oh, heh, hey Olive," he smiled. "Are you very hungry? I thought maybe we could just get a couple of hot chocolates to go from Polly Graph's, then take a walk in the park. U-unless you'd rather..."

"That sounds perfect," she interjected. "Absolutely perfect."

* * * * *

Olympia's ponytail had fallen out. Oona's lab coat was somehow flung over a beam on the ceiling, and one of her suspenders had come undone. Otis was still sitting in his chair, fingers steepled, eyebrows furrowed.

"So, like, super mega best friends?"

"No!" groaned both girls in unison. Oona sunk into a chair and put her head in her hands. Suddenly her head snapped up.

"Wait. Olympia, I need to use your computer."

"Why, what's going on? Hey, did you just hack into my account?!?" Olympia shrieked.

"No, I didn't 'hack' into your account. I just put in the password. I have a thing on Pinterest that I think will help."

"How did you get my password?!?"

Oona raised her eyebrows and slowly pointed to the adjacent pictures of Olive and Otto framed and enshrined on the filing cabinet.

"Ohhhhhh. Ahem. Proceed."