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There was a sort of malign, malignant boredom that all human beings possessed the distinct capability of accessing in dire straits, during those times when the brain was so lacking stimulation that it was willing to do something profoundly stupid in order to get a little lick of anything in for the nerves. Thus, with an ample supply of frigid fridge-batteries acquired, Rose Lalonde and Dave Strider were about to begin licking 9-volts, just to get a kick. Why? Well, why else would you like a 9-volt battery if not because you were really bored and there was little else to do? Plus, Rose always possessed an idle curiosity about the sensation ever since she heard about it from a friend years ago, and really, what else would you do with a 9-volt? Use it? Not very likely.
Dave's apartment was warm and humid even on a post-winter day like this, uncomfortably so, requiring both individuals to lie down on their backs on the floor with fans jury-rigged to the nearby couches to point down at them for the slightest sense of relief. Yes, the air conditioner was conditioning the air, cooling it down, pumping it throughout the apartment, but it was still just so much that there really wasn't enough effort left in the two of them to do much of anything outside of the simplest tasks with the best entertainment-to-calorie-expenditure ratios, like this one.
Get up and write stuff in her laptop, maybe work on a manuscript? You must be joking. Rose would never do something that productive when she could just lie here and luxuriate in airflow. Work on some music, maybe do some photography? Both of those things would require getting up from the floor, which was absolutely not something that Dave was willing to do right now when the floor was so comfortable and inviting. When there was a rough, kind of starchy carpet to be laying on that would wick up your buckets of sweat like a towel, why would you get up and do something strenuous?
On the other hand, bringing a 9-volt battery to your tongue was both exciting and provided a measure of relief from the cold, considering that Bro was the sort of person that kept batteries in the fridge instead of food (like a reasonable person, natch). Each sibling grabbed their respective rectangle of acid and electricity and brought it close to their lips, sticking their tongues out expectantly. When Rose spoke, it was slurred amusingly against her tongue, making her lisp out her words. It was really funny. Take our word for it. "Alright, on three, ready?"
"No, actually, I think now that I'm about to do this, we should instead throw these out the window and watch them explode on the ground like buckets of very dangerous paint. That sounds like a great, not illegal, and very entertaining idea that we should be doing instead of preparing to lick--" Dave replied, beginning a rambling Striderphor that would doubtlessly occupy the next five minutes if Rose let him get that far. She let him keep talking until it stopped being amusing, and then, rather abruptly--
"Okay threetwoone go!" Rose yelled, and Dave let out a startled yelp. It was clear from the grunting noises he made as he applied both ends of the 9-volt to his tongue that he would really rather be saying something snarky in response, but instead, the two of them got to experience the shocking sensation of, like, a very small amount of milliamperes running through their tongue meats.
Dave immediately flicked his battery into the air with a loud "Ow!", barely managing to catch it, while Rose merely held it to her tongue, wincing quietly, the rest of her body relaxing in some strange mixture of pain and calm. "Alright, we get it, you like putting batteries on your tongue, weirdo. You can stop now."
"Oh, can I?" Rose asked, pulling the battery away. "And here I thought you were the relative with more willpower. Goes to show what I know, I suppose."
Dave stared at her, brows furrowed, and wiped his saliva off the end of the battery's electrodes. "Okay, round two. Readysetgo--"
