video;

[wolfishflame]

[After getting the lowdown from a rather nice lady, a very annoyed-looking young woman is staring balefully at the camera.]

Are you serious.

Are you serious.

Because people keep explaining this Life-Death-Dreaming thing to me and it sounds like bullshit. There are two planes I can be on and I’m apparently not on either of them and that is so much bullshit I have apparently been dropped into the former pasture of a hekatomb of oxen because what the hell.

Look. Look at this. [She holds up her journal with a helpful diagram of a stick figure, a vertical line, and another stick figure, and a double-sided arrow.] My soul can be Waking, or it can be Otherside, or it can occasionally be both at the same time because my life is a dumpster fire. Not this, okay? [She puts the journal down, raises her hand, and taps the labradorite ring she’s wearing.] My soul is not in a rock. Even if it’s a really pretty rock, and I know from pretty rocks.

[Frustratedly:] Like, oh my gods. Every single god I have ever met. All of them. Up to and including Inari-Ōkami. For the love of baby Jesus in his mangery crib. Put me back. I want to speak to the manager. Yeah. The spell manager.

Fix this, Obama.

Comments

[justno]

[Have a vaguely cautious Penny.]

How old are you?

[wolfishflame]

Weird question, but I'll take it. Don't make me sing The Sound of Music, but I am seventeen, going on eighteen.

[justno]

[Damn.]

Call me in a year.

[wolfishflame]

[She waggles her eyebrows.]

Are you hitting on me, mystery man?

[justno]

In a year, I might be.

[wolfishflame]

I gotta say, I'm flattered.

How big is the age gap we're talking here?

[justno]

You think I'm handsome?

[wolfishflame]

Deflecting. ATDQ, my man.

[justno]

Keep that tween acronym shit up and I'll lose interest.

Less than ten.

[wolfishflame]

It's short for "Answer The Damn Question". Something one of my teachers says a lot. He likes to shorten it because he says it so much.

Since I have in fact passed first-grade math, I know that means anywhere from one to nine, and the particular qualifier given makes it closer to the range of five to nine.

What the hell. Yeah, you're pretty cute. [A girl can look.]

[justno]

You're good. [He admits, impressed by her assumptions.]

[A seven year gap is a little more than his normal, but with the startling dearth of otherwise available women his age, he might make do. Unless someone better comes along in the meantime.]

And you're damn right I am. [Although arrogant, he's mostly joking. Ish.] What's your name?

[wolfishflame]

Contrary to popular belief, I can sometimes apply logic to a situation.

Keahi. You?

[justno]

Penny.

[wolfishflame]

Nice to meet you, Penny. That short for something?

[justno]

[He seems vaguely appalled at the idea.]

No. Is yours?

[wolfishflame]

Nah. Just wondering.

[Names!]