Shards

Slumber Party

Shard bounces outside the cell with a pillow in each arm. His face pokes between them. In his hands, he carries a bowl of popcorn. "Are you excited? Because I'm excited!" The nightshift guards, whom Shard calls the Cooler Twins, let him in the cell. "I've never had a slumber party before. Or at least one that I wanted..." He puts the bowl on the table. "Catch!" Shard chucks a pillow at Octavia.

Her face catches it before it falls in her lap. The impact tosses her head a little.

"Nice catch." Shard smiles.

Octavia snarls.

He tosses his pillow on the bunk above and snags a few pieces of popcorn from the bowl. Shard shoves them under his mask. "Mm. Still warm. Want some?" He holds the bowl out to Octavia.

As much as she wants to refuse so not to indulge Shard's crazy slumber party notion, she doesn't want to turn down the opportunity of extra food. She hesitantly takes a handful and picks pieces out of her hand. The popcorn is decent. It is warm but plain.

The taste reminds her of late summer nights with her sister. A few times, Octavia and Aurora stole the microwave from thier kitchen to pop popcorn in their room. They would open the window to let the smell out and huddle together under a blanket fort to watch dramas past their bedtimes. Aurora liked her popcorn plain so that's how Octavia would eat it.

Octavia smells the popcorn. She feels the breeze from her bedroom window, the soft pillow hugged to herself, and Aurora's warmth as she turns the mini projector on to watch Emergency! Dial 0-0-0 - a medical drama their parents deemed inappropriate for them.

The memories fade away as Octavia swallows the last popcorn piece. She's not hungry anymore. She wants to throw the popcorn out of the cell.

Shard eats another handful before using Octavia's bunk as a step to join his pillow on his bunk. The popcorn goes with him. He peeks down at Octavia. "So what channel do you wanna watch, roomie?"

"Watch channels? With what screen?" Octavia says.

"That one." Shard points to the box in the corner of the room.

"You've got to be kidding me."

"Believe it. That's a gen-u-ine TV right there. No projectors. No touch screen. Just a good 'ol hunka plastic with glass and wires. Straight from the good 'ol days. Or at least better ones." Shard pulls a plastic rectangle lined with buttons out of his jacket. Pressing a big, red button, Shard turns the TV on.

An image fades on to the screen. The image is not nearly as clear as the Hologram Projectors at home but is still discernible. A drama that was popular when Octavia was little plays soundlessly. Octavia's eyes almost pop out of her head like popcorn when she realizes it's Emergency! Dial 0-0-0. Does Shard know such a little detail like this to torture her? She thinks it's a recording until she notices the corner of the screen. The translucent NetNetwork "NN" symbol displays the current date and time underneath. A bar in the bottom of the screen scrolls through news headlines. One of the lines is how many days the hostages have been in custody.

Octavia can't believe this dinosaur technology was displaying live NetNetwork feed. "How is that possible?" she says in her dumbfoundedness.

"Magic, obviously, since us Chromies have no idea about sophisticated technology." Shard laughs at her.

Whatever expression she has that Shard laughs at transforms into a scowl. Of course Shard would laugh. How would the Chromies not have some tech knowledge? The EMP Shard had the day of the party should have been a hint as well as how they came to find out about the party. They knew to check the EcoTerrace for traps and how it should function in general. Now this tech of blending new and old is something Octavia had never seen before. The Chromies had always been displayed as bumbling idiots who managed heavy hits out of pure luck and swinging twentieth century weapons around. People who talk and act so uncouth could never actually be smart, especially Shard. But he has been their leader, and they may not have been operating off luck after all. Could the way Shard acts be an act?