meteorstorm | (no subject)

[ leaning forward to peer out over the water ]

There could be whales.

You don't think Marcy would try to eat it, do you?

[Moving so she can get close and slightly behind, pointing over his shoulder so she can see from his point of view.] It was out that way and headed left. At least, I think it was headed left, it seemed like it.

[ . . . you are pretty darn close, woman

looking out in that direction, though ]

Some whales eat squid, so it's hard to say.

[Well, it's easier to show you from this angle, right?]

Frankly I think I'd cheer for the whale. But I don't know ... I don't remember, do whales have arms or anything?

[ . . . maybe ]

Whales are like giant fish, except they're mammals. They have fins and flippers.

Huh. Then maybe it wasn't a whale. It definitely had an arm.

'Cause it was doing something kind of like ...

[I'm sorry (no I'm not), I hope you didn't need to move around too much, because she's up on her knees and you're in a headlock.]

[ the thing about headlocks? is that especially if I still have my arms, if there's enough leverage I can still just topple us head over heels onto our backs ]

[Yelping because that is not the direction she thought they were going to go in, but definitely laughing anyway, probably very close to his ear.]

[ he's not really struggling, otherwise; just don't think you can get away with everything all the time ]

The magic eight ball says try again later.

You're the one who fell for it!

[A pause.]

Eight balls aren't magic.

If it bothered me that much, I would've thrown you before you could even try.

[ you get a weird look ]

It's a toy. It's a ball painted up like an eight ball with coloured water and a die with answers on it inside. You're supposed to ask it questions and shake it to get an answer.

[Warming up a little, I see. Settling in against him a little, curious.]

Are the answers actually true?

[ a little stiff, but he's not moving ]

No, not really. It says things like "Try again later", "It is decidedly so", "Outlook not so good". It's no different than flipping a coin to make a decision.

Then why do you even need a magic eight ball?

People are silly and superstitious. And some actually believe it.

Seems like a waste, to me.

[Murmuring against his shoulder, kind of absently.]

It's just a novelty toy. It's not supposed to be taken seriously.

That's still kind of weird. You guys have a lot of those sorts of things, I've noticed.

I couldn't tell you what goes through people's heads when they come up with these things.

[ then again, I couldn't tell you what was going through people's heads when my driver was created, either ]

[Could be worse. You could be Birth. Sighs.]

You guys have a whole lot of free time and resource, I guess. I never had stuff like that when I was growing up, but my planet was a lot different.

[ i won't even go there ]

It depends. Some of us have spent our lives either with our noses to the grindstone in studying, or doing that, and spending the rest of our waking hours honing some additional skill or another.

Like you.

[ was it obvious ]

Ah.

[Very. Giving a soft little hum of acknowledgment against his shoulder but saying nothing else, for now.]

[ he's just

dealing with it, for now ]

I at least had the option of choosing an extracurricular I enjoyed.