TEST DRIVE MEME

[bibliofilo]

TEST DRIVE MEME

> The Park. Man, what a nice day out. Why not enjoy it? I'm sure -- shit, yep, there's some echo monsters.
> The Mall. Exactly what it says on the tin! Dodge the hordes of teenage mallrats or take part, whichever suits your tastes.
> Rainy Day. Agh, it's fucking awful out. And is it raining those vermilion things?? Now you've got an Echo to contend with on top of everything else. Find some shelter, quick!
> PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, HOW FUN
> The most horribly kitschy Arts and Crafts Fair you can imagine.
> NEW YEARS. What better way to start out the new year than to learn that everything you know is a lie? Or if you are already acquainted with the network pass out some resolutions.
> A food fight has just broken out in the cafeteria. Join? Flee? The choice is yours alone.
> Wild Card! Make up your own.

Comments

[notbloody]

Charlotte eagerly waits for him to get down and then immediately leans up, very earnestly asking: "Why are you a skeleton? Siiri says that it is rude to ask people such things, that nobody can help who they are, but nobody else is a skeleton. Are you an advanced zombie?" And then she gets back down and looks up at him, still with that overeager look that is just reminiscent of a puppy.

[and_taxes]

Still on one knee Bill sort of draws back, quite minused. I AM NOT, he says automatically, like he has on the two or three other occasions when it was pointed out.

Then, reconsidering, he realizes he's using That Voice again. "I mean, I'm not. Or - skeletons come from inside people who've died. I've never been.**"

* Nonplussed. Bill had been quite a good accountant before things started happening.
** Entirely true. His mother lives in a home in Ohio.

[notbloody]

"And your voice isn't in the right place."

Her voice is still low, and she leaned in again for the words. At this point, Bill might notice the tall woman from before approaching, but she'll decide that he has the situation under control and leave them to it.

[and_taxes]

That's a new one. "I'm sorry?"

He nods at the girl's sister in what he hopes is a friendly, confident way.

[notbloody]

"It's like when that girl in my class talks. It's here" she puts a finger against her temple "and not here" she puts a finger against her ear. "At least sometimes."

[and_taxes]

AH. "I mean, ah." He scratches his head with a faint scrabbling noise. "You know, I hadn't been aware."

The Voice - the capital letters seemed to come in on their own - had a sound like lead on marble. People tended to glaze over a little and then continue as normal when they heard it, just like when they looked right at him. Commands also had more of an effect than maybe they should, but he was hardly the sort to give commands.

[notbloody]

"It's not bad!" The little girl reaches up and pets is head. "...But how do you eat like that? Eating is important!"

At this point, the older sister will come over and kneel down next to them. "Charlotte." The girl ducks her head a bit at the stern voice, but that only takes a moment before she turns to Siir now. "But wouldn't it fall through?"

[and_taxes]

Bill gives the older sister a look that from any other visage would be panicked. Children tend not to be afraid, with one or two notable (alarming) exceptions, but this seems a ways on the other side.

"...I expect it's quantum," he says weakly. "Many things are."

[notbloody]

"What is quantum?"

Siiri'< frown deepends at her sister's words, she is really unhappy about this bothering of a stranger - sure, she is glad that her little sister is so much more sociable than herself, but at the same time it has gone a bit overboard sometimes since the girl started to change. She crouches down and opens her arms, calling out the girl's name in an odd, overly intonated way - as if she was calling out for a dog, almost. But it works: The girl's head whips around and she laughs happily as she runs into her sister's arms, who picks her up and hoists her on her hip.

"Sorry. She's not good with numbers." Because really, what else could a walking skeleton be?