Vegetables are *good* for you.

[odditycollector]

Via bravecows: The OTP broccoli test.

One half of a couple is standing in the fresh vegetable aisle of a large supermarket. The other half is away over the other side of the shop. The two can see each other, but cannot communicate verbally. Can the other half convey to the one in the vegetable aisle that he wants broccoli? That's the broccoli test.

But when I tried to see if my (one) OTP would pass the test, I ran into a problem: What if one half of the couple is a telepath? The non-verbal rule doesn't seem to be as much a hindrance as one would suppose.

If Charles can use telepathy, it would go something like: Erik, can you pick up some broccoli for dinner? No, I think we might need a bit more than that. Which *technically* is Passing The Broccoli Test, but I feel is missing something of the spirit of the challenge.

If he can't, however, they'd be too busy fighting power-nullifying aliens to worry overly much about healthy dinner choices, especially once the grocery market is demolished by giant purple elephant creatures. Or else Erik is wearing his helmet, indicative of acute relationship difficulties that cannot be solved by judicious application of broccoli in any case.

Comments

[greenygal.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about this too, actually. I can plausibly come up with scenarios in which Charles has no telepathy and yet communal grocery shopping is still an option--not a lot of them, admittedly, but a few--but at that point I'm not sure what the answer is (and the fact that neither of them will be used to non-telepathic non-verbal communication by then does not help). I was tentatively working on the theory that they would pass the test but then spend the next hour arguing over the proper way to cook broccoli, but then I thought about the opening stages of X2, which contains a fairly major Broccoli Failure on Charles' part. So I'm not sure.

[apagon.livejournal.com]

oh my god, you are hilarious... yeah, can you imagine couple's counseling? I suppose the helmet is one way of refusing to listen to each other... thanks for sharing, I will never be able to shop for broccoli in the supermarket in the same way...

[culacuuby.livejournal.com]

I have the odd feeling that Erik would pick up the broccoli anyway without prompting, and then later in rejoining there would be mild surprise (but not really) from Charles, whose mild surprise in turn surprises Erik. Domestic awkwardness is bootiful.