ellectrical | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Elle is curled up into one side of the couch, head leaned against the arm, sparks snapping around her neck. Farrah, who has chosen to settle on her stomach, is watching the sparks crackle, head moving back and forth very slightly as the electricity flares and flashes on her skin.

Fortunately, she hasn't resorted to batting her paw at them.

That probably wouldn't be pleasant for anyone.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Her eyes stay down.

"I can't be wrong."

That's the important part.

Now X looks uncertain.

"I am allowed to ask?"

Beat.

"Why."

"I've been wrong. When I thought people weren't lying."

The sparks light up over her hand, snapping between her fingers.

"Then I - give them things, and..."

She lets it drift off.

X's delivery is flat.

"They hurt you."

It is important.

She stays silent for a long moment.

"When people make fun of me, I know what they mean."

Even if it's not very nice.

X tries to follow, but --

"I do not understand."

A little more quickly this time -

"It's okay that - they don't like me. Because I know."

"Oh."

It makes sense.

"They make it easy to tell."

She nods.

"It's better than if I - don't know."

"Yes," X agrees, after a moment or two of thought.

"It is better to be sure."

This next pause lasts a few seconds.

"But people are not always jerks. When they are honest."

"I know."

And she does, though after a moment she adds, "I know that now."

X shifts a little, nudging her foot against Elle's leg.

Again.

"Okay," she says, quietly.

"Good."

It is important.

"But -"

She closes her eyes, and opens them again, trying to force something together to make sense of this.

"Sometimes they - I think they don't say what they mean."

X considers that.

Then --

"Yes. Sometimes people do not know how. To say things."

Beat.

"Or they do not want to."

She doesn't fidget.

"It is not always bad."

"But they say something else."

Beat.

"Or they ask me things..."

Elle is starting to stare rather intently at the sofa.

X's frown is growing pronounced.

"I am allowed to ask?"

She can't tell.

And it seems to be not okay.

"I do not -- "

Elle doesn't need it pointed out to her that she's basically starting to do the thing she's complaining about.

She's still quiet for a long moment, but finally -

"I talked to Bruce again."

"Oh."

Now X looks a little bewildered. Just for a second.

"He was a jerk?"

It's a really nice couch X has. Or another reason Elle is staring at it.

"Maybe I was bad at it again."

She blinks up to the wall. "I don't think I was - that bad."

"I do not think so, either."

Her frown does not look like it is going anywhere.

Neither, of course, is the foot that she has pressed against Elle's leg.

"And he understands me. When I talk."

X thinks Elle is not as bad at talking as X herself is. It could be true!

"I don't think he says what he means. To me."

Beat. "Sometimes."

"Oh."

X considers that for a few seconds.

Then --

"He pretends a lot. At home. Because people are always watching."

She does not shrug.

"I think he forgets. Sometimes. That he does not have to pretend in Milliways."

Beat.

"Most of the time."

This pause is longer.

"You are okay?"

"I can't talk to him."

Beat. "If he's pretending. Or I don't know. And I'm not."

"I will tell him," X says, then hesitates.

"If that is okay."

If Elle does not mind.

Elle's not sure what the protocol is here, as she's never had a social circle big enough to cause this kind of thing.

So she answers, "I don't know if you have to."

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 2 of 4