video; UN: TripleJ

[kyley_b]

[The hair. Oh dear god, the hair. Kyle's recognizable mass of curls has been gelled within an inch of its life and sculpted into a wavy helmet. And where are his sleeves?!]

Yo Trench, what up what up, it's ya boy Kyley-B!

So's I need a little help here - anybody know a place in town where you can get some dope-ass ink? Because, you know, if you look up 'too much swag' in the dictionary, there'll be a great big picture of my face, and attitude like that deserves the best, you know what I'm sayin'?

Help a guy out here.

PEACE!

Comments

[kyley_b]

Yeah, but isn't there a famous one? [Kyle's pretty sure he's not making this up.]

I hope she sounds less stupid than this one.

[Willzyx whistles. It's true, though, he sounds really dumb.]

Oh, yeah, totally. Shedded and shredded, that's me. Hey, you think if I shed again the tattoo would come off too?

oh my god I completely forgot that episode; *beautiful*

[hearthebell]

If the Bible matters to you, I suppose there's a famous one.

[He tries to phrase it without any kind of bias, making it intentionally unclear how he feels about the association. One exists, of course; every part of his fake name has some significance.]

"Stupid" is an arbitrary construct meant to diminish the contributions of those seen as lesser. It wouldn't occur to me to make that judgment about your omen.

[L only hears whale sounds akin to Lycka's; he might think differently if he heard that big dumb voice. He suspects that every Sleeper perceives their omen's communication differently.]

It's possible that you'd lose the tattoo... but I was injured while in a shedded state, and after I returned to normal, the scars remained.

[He tugs up his sleeve, revealing a bone-white and extremely thin forearm, absolutely covered in marks left by an orca whale's teeth.]

:)

[kyley_b]

Nah, bruh, I'm Jewish, only the first half matters to me. [Said with a cheeky grin.]

That's real nice of you. I'm sure Willzyx appreciates you being a bro.

[Kyle has to think about that for a moment. Then he's peering at the scars on L's arm.]

Whooooooooaaaaaa what the fuck did you DO?

[hearthebell]

There's a cleansing sort of fury to the Old Testament, isn't there?

[The way he says it is almost cheerful, in a wan way. It doesn't ebb when Kyle asks about the tooth marks.]

I was dreaming in Cassandra and Lycka pulled me away from danger. I thought it would be interesting to have a scar. It's possible that's why it stayed after I shed, so... internalize your choice, and it stays, I'd think.

[kyley_b]

I guess you could look at it that way, sure.

Oh, fuck, yeah. Good job, Lycka. [Kyle considers this, frowning a little. Maybe he should be more careful.]

Why'd you think it would be interesting?

[hearthebell]

I've never had a scar before.

I wanted to see if it felt different to see a physical manifestation of survival on my flesh, and I assessed that I appreciated the way the experience changed my outlook. Besides... I understand that scars look tough.

[kyley_b]

How the fuck you never had a scar? Severe helicopter mom or what?

You ain't wrong there. Hotties LOVE em.

[hearthebell]

[There's an odd sound in the back of his throat that he tries to pass off for simply clearing it. He'd had an overprotective handler-slash-bodyguard, and also, incidentally, a helicopter as well.]

Did you? If you want to get a tattoo for your mother, I'd think that she was a fairly constant and formative presence in your life.

[Deflection, it's great.]

...you know this from experience? How many scars do you have?

[kyley_b]

Hell yeah I did! My ma was the best! She was a fighter.

Aside from the bite marks my boo keeps givin me, I got a wicked surgery scar. I think I'd have more, but I died. [Like it's no big deal.]

[hearthebell]

A fighter? Was she sick?

[He's heard it before in that context. If she was a fighter in some other way, he's still interested. Talk of mothers interests L, the way talk of the jungle or volcanos might interest someone who has spent their whole life in Cleveland.]

For a time I wondered if everyone here was dead. So you're one of them?

[Us, he does not say, as the man whose perfectly scarless body dropped dead at 25.]

[kyley_b]

Huh? Oh, naw, I mean like literally, she could fight!

I never died til I got here. I got pretty messed up, turned into a squid again, woke up on the beach. It sucked. [This is an abbreviated and glib version of the events.]

[hearthebell]

Oh... I'm sorry that happened.

[What else does one say to hearing about the remembered death of another?]

There are implications to spiritual immortality that some philosophies and creeds must grapple with terribly. I never thought that death was anything besides a one-way trip that deconstructed everything about a person beyond any possible reassembly.

[kyley_b]

Thanks.

I dunno what it's like in other places, but here... yeah. You come back. I dunno how many times. I don't really wanna find out.

You study philosophy? [There is a brain hidden under all that hair gel.]

[hearthebell]

Probably best, not to treat it too cavalierly.

[Absently, he reaches back to pet Lycka's tongue as she stretches her mouth wide and sticks it out.]

Philosophy interests me... many things do, to an extent. Do you study it?

[kyley_b]

Exactly, bro.

[Jealous, Willzyx nudges Kyle, who shoves at him.]

Get offa me.

I took some back in school. That's lots of shit in the Archive, if you didn't already know. Socrates and shit.

[hearthebell]

[L's brow furrows as he observes the other Sleeper and his omen interacting.]

Aren't they the better parts of us?

[What can be salvaged, if anything can? L, who struggles to connect suffering with his own mind and body, and even frames it at times as a deserving sort of balance, can see how it affects his protective orca matriarch.

She glides away from L, chirping as she side-swipes Willzyx in passing. It's gentle, maybe even motherly, an invitation to take a lap apart from the Sleepers to explore the tattoo parlor. Is that what he would have been like if he'd grown up differently? Social, playful and curious, and not lonely and prone to hyper-fixation?

Lycka's a puzzle to him that is both comforting and quietly devastating. Maybe it's the same for Kyle.]

I spend a lot of time in the Archives. I haven't come across Socrates, but it's probably because I'm always looking for something I haven't read before.

[A pause, before he adds]

I like Socrates, and appreciate him. You could tattoo "Know Thyself" just about anywhere on your body, with delicate enough work, or go for broke with the fear of death and the greatest of all evils wherever it fits.

[kyley_b]

What, these dumb things? [As he shoves at Willzyx again. Willzyx headbutts him and he stumbles.] I dunno, maybe? I use mine to take selfies.

[Willzyx makes a sad panda whale noise, and then drifts off after Lycka.]

Wasn't that also etched above the Oracle of Delphi? That's some mystic-ass shit. Which I'm into these days.

[hearthebell]

[L considers, really analyzes to the heart of the matter, whether it's worthwhile to offer to illuminating (and perhaps self-congratulatory) information about the intelligence of cetaceans.

Willzyx can't be that dumb; he knows for a fact that Lycka isn't. Are you self-destructive? He thinks it loudly, does not actually ask.]

In fact, it is. We're from similar worlds, I think. If you wanted to be funny... oh!

[He brushes aside his bangs, pressing a finger where an eyebrow should be. He doesn't actually seem to have any.]

If you put it above your eye, you could say it was the "Orbital of Delphi."

[kyley_b]

[Kyle grins broadly.] Dude that shit is HILARIOUS! Maybe I'll do that.

What happened to your eyebrows? You shave em off?

[hearthebell]

[L's shoulders crunch up toward his ears, head dipping in an awkward expression of cautious gladness that a joke landed.

It's too bad there's no true way to answer the eyebrow question that keeps the mood light. He likes the mood, so he gives it a try, anyway, brave like a chick leaping from its nest high in the trees with the bad luck of being born a penguin.]

I thought it happened to all boys when they reached a certain age? That's what I was told, anyway... your voice gets deeper, you experience new and strange urges, and your eyebrows migrate south. I guess you're still waiting?

[kyley_b]

[Kyle cackles.]

Holy shit, you're funny. We need to hang out more, bruh.

Hey, you like it here?

[hearthebell]

[L startles visibly at the cackle; recovering, his shoulders begin to relax. His features are a clash; eyes alarmed, mouth smiling cautiously as he nods to confirm that he would be open to the idea.]

It's different. I like being close to the sea, and dreaming; I never did, before. What about you? You must miss your mother, but... do you like it?

[kyley_b]

Yeah, I miss my whole family but... I dunno. It's good here. I was somewhere else before, in fuckin space if you can believe it, but this is different. I feel like I belong here.

And it is pretty dope to be by the ocean, even if it's full of soul squids and monsters.

[hearthebell]

Space?

[He seems especially and keenly interested in this; maybe, before his life's path was set, he harbored dreams of being an astronaut as so many young children do.]

So this wasn't your first afterlife experience, unless you were a highly decorated and experienced pilot.

[He doesn't know what to call Trench; since he died, he defaults, just a bit, to considering it an afterlife.]

[kyley_b]

Yeah. Which sounds cool, but mostly sucked.

Oh, no, this is the first place I ever died. I just got abducted by aliens before. Which has happened to me a lot, actually.