A lobby?

Through the onyx-black frame was a space that looked like a lobby for a doctor’s office. There was a coffee table with a tall stack of magazines, some chairs, and only one window that just had a darkness on the other side.

“Where… are we…?” Erica asked, poking one of the chair cushions as if testing whether they were real or not.

Lenny sat down in one such chair and began rifling through the magazines, saying “The TV’s start menu. I figured ensuring it’d be this way would be tedious enough for me to be pull off easily.” as he set aside specific magazines, and upon closer inspection each magazine had a title shared with an existing streaming service.

When Erica and Angewomon stared at him he clarified “I figured that formatting the liminal smart-TV space so I had to sift through magazines by hand wouldn’t be as ‘expensive’ to buy with Point Transfer compared to something like a long hallway with doors. I was debating a train station or airport too, but this seemed quicker and less chaotic.”

The floating block sat itself in the seat next to Lenny and commented “That sounds smart, Papa. You’re very good at using your special Point Transfer ability, Papa.”

Erica looked back toward the doorway they’d stepped through to get there, and saw a pedestal where a black-and-red magazine labeled “Netflix” was placed. Removing it saw the space they’d entered from disappear as the doorframe emptied, and the ostensible Demi-Servant said “Well, that’s intuitive. But since they’re magazines they’re probably just as fragile, so it’d probably be prudent for us to…” before she cut herself off as she saw Leonard precisely tearing up some magazines into specific pieces. “… keep them safe and whole.”

With a sigh he explained “If we ended up in the Netflix app even though I never used it, then the reasons for why we popped in where we did aren’t based on the streaming apps I normally watch.” Before gesturing to the small stack he’d set aside initially. “Aside from Netflix, those are the apps that are first on the main screen when I turn my TV on. Amazon Prime, Hulu, Youtube, Disney Plus, and most recently Tubi.”

He then showed the magazines (streaming services) he’d begun tearing apart. Crave, Sundance Now, BlazeTV, HayU, AcornTV, Videoland, and Kayo Sports.

The “Cr” from [Cr]ave, the “un” and “c” from S[un]dan[c]e Now, the “H” and “y” from [H]a[y]U, the “r” and “o” from Ac[or]nTV, and the two different “l” letters from B[l]azeTV and Video[l]and we’re placed together in one group.

Then the remaining “d” from S[d]ane Now, the “r” and “o” from Kay[o] Spo[r]ts, a “d” from Vi[d]eland that was spun around to make a “p”, the remaining “o” from Sane N[o]w, “U” from a[U], and finally the “T” from Baze[T]V were put into a second group.

Lenny then placed the two groups of letters from each magazine’s front cover on top of the shredded remains of the seven magazines divided into two piles, the scavenged letters arranged to spell out “CruncHyroll” and “dropoUT”.

With a touch from Lenny’s hands, the scraps of magazines/streaming service apps were reformed into new and whole magazines for two new streaming services that hadn’t been in the stack before, ones who had properly capitalized titles compared to the cutout letters from before the transfer.

“So… was there a reason you did that first…?” Erica asked, picking up a newly formed Crunchyroll magazine to flip through it.

Lenny replied “I wanted something to look forward to when we get out of this. Well, aside from all the harem sex.” as he set the similarly fresh Dropout magazine on top of the stack of apps-in-magazine-form. “My TV model can’t download new apps, you know?” he added with a slight chuckle.

With that done, he grabbed one of the front-page streaming apps and set it onto the pedestal.