Chapter Text
“Calming moisturiser for dry or scaly skin. Nourishes your skin cells so that moisture is absorbed, not just trapped in the pores…”
Chin resting on his left claw, Boto used his right to press the arrow keys on his laptop.
The click of his talons against the keys, and the consequent click of the keys against the baseboard of the laptop, were audible.
He was playing that block game, the one where you have to rotate falling pieces so that they fit into layers.
Changbai forgot what it was called.
As the moisturiser ad came to an end, the IceWing turned from looking at Boto back to the screen of his own laptop.
The video, which had been interrupted by the ad at about the 10-second mark, promptly resumed playing once more.
“Why don’t you just get an ad blocker?”
Changbai hit the spacebar to pause what he was watching.
“What was that?”
“I said, why don’t you just get an ad blocker?”
Changbai furrowed his brow slightly.
“… Why would I do that?”
“Well, clearly you’re having to wait through the ads so that you can watch your videos. The blocker literally just removes them for you. I got one around a year ago, and it’s, like, really a huge quality-of-life improvement.”
Changbai’s brow unfurrowed itself then, in fact moving in the opposite direction to be slightly raised in acknowledgement of Boto’s words.
“… huh. I guess I just… never bothered with that before.”
“You should just download one now.”
Through their conversation, Boto hadn’t stopped playing his block game.
He could multitask like that.
“Which blocker do you use?”
“Well, I use Freeflow, but I think our browsers might be different.”
Changbai narrowed his eyes in confusion.
“Which browser do you use, then?”
“Sandshrew.”
“Oh, you’re one of those dragons.”
Boto actually turned for a moment then to give Changbai his own brows-raised look.
“Come on, it really is the best browser! It’s fast and completely open-source, with highly UX-friendly customisation, and it even has website-isolating containers to keep your data more secure.”
“Boto, I barely even know what half that stuff means. You clearly only care about that kind of stuff ‘cause you’re a computer science major.”
“I think you’re just digitally illiterate, dude.”
Changbai raised a brow.
“Not nice.”
“The truth hurts.”
Changbai gave a mock-exasperated chuckle, rolling his eyes playfully before finding a download link on the Freeflow website.
“Oh. Turns out it works as an extension for the Corundum browser, as well.”
“I honestly don’t like Corundum. They’re inefficient memory-wise, and they track you, like, all the time, even in private browsing mode.”
“I really don’t think I care.”
At that, Boto just shrugged and turned back to his own screen.
Changbai watched the download circle spin in place on his laptop for a few seconds before another thought came to his mind.
“Oh, and by the way, where’s Thrush?”
The RainWing’s screen flashed as he dissolved several layers at once.
There was no sound, since he kept his computer muted out of habit.
“Uh, I dunno. He might have gone out. Do you want to call him?”
“I mean, might as well.”
Changbai pulled out his phone and tapped on Thrush’s contact.
Putting the phone on speaker and setting it on the table, he let it ring for a few seconds before the SkyWing eventually answered.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Thrush.”
Thrush spoke with his usual deep, slightly tired inflection.
“Uh, hey. What’s up?”
“Well, where are you? You’re not here in our dorm.”
“Oh, uh, I just went to the market. There was some stuff in our bathroom we needed to restock on.”
“Ah, alright. Just checking.”
A slight pause, save some unidentifiable shuffling sounds from Thrush’s end, before the SkyWing spoke again.
“Do you, like, need something, Changbai?”
“From you or from the shop?”
“I mean, like, either.”
Changbai thought for a moment.
“I think… we’re actually running out of paper towels? We are, right?”
Thrush’s tone immediately shifted to sound like he’d just been delivered a revelation.
“Ohhhhhhh, dude, that’s what it was. Man, I knew I was forgetting something. Thanks for actually reminding me, bro.”
“Oh, yeah, uh, totally. Boto, do you maybe want anything?”
The RainWing silently shook his head without looking at Changbai.
The blocks were falling faster now, as Boto expertly sorted each one of them to layer together seamlessly.
He was surprisingly good at this game.
“He’s shaking his head no.”
“Guess that settles it, then.”
“Alright, bye.”
“See ya.”
Thrush hung up first.
Looking back at his laptop, Changbai saw that its screen was already dark.
It had been a few minutes since he’d last interacted with the device.
Before he could press a key to wake it up, however, a revelation suddenly arose in his mind.
“Quadri!”
“What?”
“You’re playing Quadri.”
Boto seemingly didn’t find this realisation very significant.
“Uh… yeah, I am. What about it?”
“I just, like, forgot the name for a minute there and was trying to think of it.”
An awkward pause.
Boto stared at Changbai for a moment or so.
“Okay.”