Between no longer being punchy from fatigue, as well as becoming desensitized to how awful most of the names are, their continuation of going over the list of supervillain organizations doesn't grab them anywhere near as much as it had last night. There are still the occasional chuckles and bits of snark, but it is half-hearted at best in comparison.
The multiple pages of names beginning with Villain, Villains, Violence, and Violent are so numbing that they're all extremely thankful they stopped when they did last night.
Starting the W's earns a pause though when the very first entry is 'Wahahaha!' Needless to say, Lucas and Jonathan take turns doing their best evil laugh to try and do the name justice.
Not wanting to miss out, Willy gives a warbling howl as well. This has apparently startled one of the neighboring building's dogs, who howls back, startling another and... It's Howling Cartographer all over again.
[...If canines had GDV tracking, I can guarantee he would have lost points for starting that resonance cascade both times.]
'Hah! That'll teach Boss System for not taking animals seriously.'
[…]
Once this bout of silliness is out of their systems, they return to their villainous research, a bit more energetic than when they started this session.
"Hah, 'World of Evil', isn't that a bit too on-the-nose?" As Lucas muses this out loud he gets a brief chuckle from Jonathan. He then continues scrolling right past without putting any more thought into it, the name already forgotten.
Not too much further, Lucas pauses once more.
"'Wrath of Golden Crown'? I mean, I sorta get it, but it also doesn't seem quite right..." While Lucas stares at the name, he has a slight frown of annoyance, although he can't quite put a finger on why.
'Seriously though, why's it bothering me so much?'
[Well, for one, the grammar is off.]
'I guess, but I dunno, I doubt that's it.'
"Um, well, there's no sort of royalty... Is it just because it's valuable?" Jonathan is also struggling with wanting to get the name to sit right in his mind.
[Hmm... Speaking of valuable, haven't you two been flaunting your wealth, so to speak, ever since you got it?]
'Eh? I guess... We didn't really try to hide it at all, huh?'
[Well, it's something you two now publicly have in common. Maybe it could help narrow down some ideas for your organization's name?]
'Hrm... I'm not big on gold... But it makes me think of silver... Wealth... Oh! Something about being born with a silver spoon in your mouth!'
[...Another idiom from your world I take it. Even without any further context, it clearly has something to do with wealth though.]
'Yeah, heh, I can work with this.'
"Hey, speaking of valuable, should we maybe go that route?" As Lucas suddenly speaks up again, he turns his attention back over to Jonathan and Willy. Willy tilts his head in typical adorable pup fashion and Jonathan's previous look of confused contemplation switches to one of eagerness.
"Oh! Did you get an idea? What is it?" As Jonathan's curiosity peaks, he subconsciously leans forward a bit, hugging Willy close to his chest as he asks.
"Well, we kinda want to make fun of how dumb the names are, yeah? Whatcha think of 'Brotherhood of the Silver Spoon?'" As Lucas asks this with a raised brow, he somehow maintains a much more serious expression on his face than the name deserves.
Jonathan bursts out laughing, giving a thumbs-up as he does so. Willy rocks a bit with the movements of Jonathan's laughter, wagging his tail along happily and giving a bark of approval.
"Hah! Guess that's settled then. You know though, we've gotten so far through the list I kinda feel like we should finish, if for no other reason than to be able to say we did..?" Lucas reaches up and rubs his chin a bit as he says this, looking back down at the laptop for a moment before turning to look at Jonathan and Willy again.
Jonathan has mostly calmed back down from his burst of laughter, nodding a bit while still chuckling. Once Lucas has finished speaking, he voices his agreement with a simple "Sure!"
Willy proves agreeable as well, barking once as he turns his gaze back to the laptop screen, tail still happily wagging as he does so.
Resuming scrolling through the largely complete lengthy list of villainous organization monikers, they get through the rest of the W's as well as through the X's with intermittent laughter.
Once they're most of the way through the Y's, they can't help stopping for a few minutes and have the greatest laughing fit yet today.
"I... I don't know what I love more! Bwahaha, what the hell is with 'Your Reliable Evil News Network (That Totally Doesn't Lie, Ever)'!? What even is the max size of names anyway!? Is there one!? No, the spelling correction of 'Your Mom*' is the best one, who am I kidding!? Why even were there five different versions for 'your mom'!?" Lucas has fallen into laughing so hard he's started crying. His mental maturity in the face of yo momma jokes is self-evident.
Willy had to jump down off of Jonathan's lap as Jonathan was laughing so hard he fell over, though not being one to miss out he has been barking out his agreement with Lucas's rhetorical questions from the floor.
After nearly half of an hour, they've finally gotten themselves under control and are breathing with some semblance of normality. Lucas spent no small amount of time fanning his face, his eyes and cheeks are red from the strain of laughing too hard.
Somehow, the laptop has thankfully survived the ordeal.
Now that they're calmed down, Willy hops back up onto Jonathan's lap and the trio turns their focus to the laptop once again, ready for the final sprint of the monstrous listing.
The snark as they finish the Y's and chip away at the Z's is fairly mild, with the occasional snort or brief chuckle.
Scrolling past more zombie names than they would have anticipated, a pair of names next to each other catches Lucas's attention for the umpteenth time.
"'Zone of Death' AND 'Zone of Doom'? I know some names are similar..." Before Lucas continues further he stops and snorts thinking back to the affronts against mothers. Stopping to clear his throat he then manages to continue. "But still, that feels kinda lame? Eh, whatever. We shouldn't be surprised at this point."
"Ehhh... Yeah..." Jonathan gives a sluggish agreement and they finally continue scrolling down to the end of the listing.
As shouldn't surprise anyone, the very last entry earns its own laughter.
"What the fuck!? Hah! That's one two three... Ten Z's? ZZZZZZZZZZ! I'm almost surprised someone hasn't done one with eleven to steal his spot as last!" As Lucas cracks up with the finale, Jonathan's laughter is a touch more intense, mainly due to Lucas's attempt at pronouncing it.
-----
Lucas kills this chapter: 0
Lucas total kills: 6
Lucas deaths this chapter: 0
Lucas total deaths: 10
Lucas current GDV: 8.77
Lucas's fame level: 2* (Mostly just local)
Lucas's hero suspicion level: 1* (Only highly paranoid people)
Jonathan kills this chapter: 0
Jonathan total kills: 5
Jonathan deaths this chapter: 0
Jonathan total deaths: 2
Jonathan current GDV: 1.78
Jonathan's fame level: 1.5* (Just local)
Jonathan's hero suspicion level: 1* (Only highly paranoid people)
-----
Little character theater:
Jonathan, now also buzzing out his own attempt at the name: ZZZZZZZZZZ!
Lucas continues ping-ponging back and forth with Jonathan's buzzing as he closes the laptop, maintaining eye contact the entire time.
Willy is serving as some sort of scorekeeper, facing whichever of the two are buzzing at any given moment and barking once their turn is over.
427, overwhelmed by the stupidity going on: [I really need to get a temporary deafening feature...]
Author, grinning evilly: Sorry 427, you will continue to suffer.
Mr. Quacks, attempting to also participate in the buzzing contest: Quuuaaaccck!
After an alarming amount of time, by 427's current standards at least, of high-intensity buzzing competition, there is still no clear winner. Nearing his breaking point, 427 finally interrupts.[It's great that you are all bonding so well, but we REALLY don't have time for this.]Lucas had been mid-buzz when 427 spoke up and the sudden mechanical voice startles him into fumbling. Willy does not hesitate to consider this a failing on his part, barking at him twice, then turning to look at Jonathan for his turn.'Hey! You could have at least waited until it wasn't my turn, jerk.'[…]'Okay, okay, you're right. Busy day and all that. Meh.
When Lucas is about halfway through unlocking the series of two barrel-bolts and four locks, he pauses in the middle of his actions and looks down at Willy waiting patiently by his feet."Hey, wanna show Dan, er Black Ash Snow his lookalike?" Lucas asks the pup with a huge mischievous grin spread across his face.Willy promptly gives a single, excited, bark. After voicing his opinion, he dashes off to fetch it himself."Oh! Um, since it's right there, should we bring all three?" As Jonathan makes his timid recommendation, he gets a bark that is clearly a question based on its tone in response."Yeah, they're just across the street from each other." Lucas answers on Jonathan's behalf, and there is another enthusi
As Lucas continues expressing his displeasure at his severe limitations on romantic prospects, 427 tries to tune him out as hard as he can. Not that Lucas can even tell, he's far too wrapped up in stating his grievances.By the time Lucas has smiled in response to sly looks from not one, nor even only two, but three different women, he's lost most of his momentum in his mental bitching.'Eheh, the attention is pretty sweet at least.'[…]Jonathan has had greatly conflicting feelings concerning the attention he's been getting, ultimately settling on just being shy and awkward, surprising no one.However, his attempts at trying to ignore all
Only a few seconds into the service bot's lengthy explanations regarding the wide range of features available for this section of phones that should qualify for Lucas's needs, Lucas's eyes have glazed over. Jonathan has been diligently listening, nodding along occasionally as he keeps playing with a different pair of phones after about a minute of testing each.'Duuuude, he might as well be speaking another language. I haven't learned shit about technology here. Oh, I know what waterproof means, at least.'[…]"-Ultimately, any of the models in this display over here should be sufficient for your needs, provided they are protected by one of the multiple nanogel-filled case options available. The one-millimeter case is sufficient for slash and bullet res
With the merchandise reclaimed, the service bot opens the main door to the store and holds it open for the three guests to enter before it.Following the proper order of priority, Willy gets to go in first, followed by Lucas, and then Jonathan who still beats everyone else back over to the phone display he was at before. Finally, the bot enters as well.Willy lies back down in more-or-less the same spot he was in before, now paying attention to the previously neglected Mind Flare chew doll. At least, he considers chewing on it as counting as paying attention.The service bot brings the phone back over to the counter he used previously to attach the case, pulls some cleaning wipes out from a drawer nearby to wipe it down, and then performing the case-mounting process in
As Lucas is stuck debating between vine-covered trellises versus conventional hedges to surround the fencing of his several-acre fantasy animal sanctuary, the service bot has returned with a small multi-tiered pushcart.The bottom shelf has five boxes, namely those of the three tablets and two phones. The middle shelf has a large selection of potential cases for the tablets, and the top shelf bears the array of cases for the phones.Right after Lucas decides that the vine-covered trellises would probably be a bit too pretentious, the service bot stops the cart right in front of him. Barely a moment later, Jonathan is standing on the other side of the cart, facing toward Lucas but his attention is down on the nanogel phone case designs. Before the cart is even at a complete stop, he has already started going through them, re-s
As the transaction is finalized and all purchases besides the phones themselves are bagged, Jonathan has set about filling his contact list with the information from the impromptu supervillain social circle symposium last night. Unfortunately, his super-speed doesn't do him much good with most technology as the majority of devices can only accept so many inputs at any given moment.For the rest of that time period, apart from finalizing payment, Lucas is busy giving Willy a photo shoot, trying to decide on wallpaper for his phone.In the end, the victorious photo is a shot of Willy sprawled out on his back with his legs up in the air. He's curled into a C shape, he has the pseudo-Josephine resting on his stomach, the imitation Mind Flare across his chest, the artificial Black Ash Snow sideways between his teeth, and last but
After spending some time contemplating Willy's hardships, Lucas's mind wanders off in another direction.'...Hey, so Jon hates his family name, yeah?'[It seems like it? You could just ask him?]'Well, could I just like, become his legal guardian or something, and he gets my name instead?'[...Given that you are considered a full-grown adult and he is a minor, I don't see why not. Ah, though becoming only a legal guardian wouldn't terminate his parent's current rights. Even though they disowned him, there is a chance they did not do so legally. Heh, did we make enough son jokes that you started to take it seriously?]'Hey, each and e