I Like Long Walks On The Beach

[iamnotpolaris]

The beach is a nice, convenient, out-of-earshot place to calibrate the coordinates for this universe.

Comments

[iamnotpolaris]

"Well, however it happened, I'm glad you're okay."

[not_only]

"Thanks."

[iamnotpolaris]

"You're welcome. I mean, I'd be glad that most anyone hadn't been permanently psychologically scarred, but you're a nice person."

[not_only]

"Am I?" he wonders. "It's hard to tell that sort of thing with nobody around but flesh statues."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Well, I mean, you seem okay! You're not the kind of scarred that's miserable, at least, which is the important thing."

"...Unless of course you are just putting on a brave front and are secretly a mess of insecurities and unhappiness, in which case...that would be bad."

[not_only]

"Yes, that would be terrible," he agrees.

[iamnotpolaris]

giggle

"Seriously, though, if you're feeling bad for whatever reason we can...probably help. Or manage to find someone else who can help."

[not_only]

He smiles when she giggles.

"Thanks," he says. "I think I'm doing fine, though."

[iamnotpolaris]

"That's good. I'm glad we found you, though."

[not_only]

"Me too."

[iamnotpolaris]

"I am also glad the dragon and unicorn turned out not to be hostile."

[not_only]

"That wouldn't have ended well."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Well, probably it would have ended with Edie knocking them unconscious and then us all fleeing the universe."

[not_only]

"Unless that didn't work for some reason. And even if it did, that's only where it would've ended for us."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Well, I did say probably," shrug. "And if they had been hostile given the way this world seems to work it probably would have been because they thought that Tialle's Demon was evil. And he's not. So."

[not_only]

"It's a little weird that he doesn't have a name."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Yeah, kinda."

[not_only]

"But I guess he hasn't needed one in a really long time."

[iamnotpolaris]

"And before that the people he was around were jerks, so."

[not_only]

"I'm not sure I caught all of that part."

[iamnotpolaris]

"...Okay, did you catch the part where it was literally unprecedented for a member of his species not to be evil?"

[not_only]

"I think so, sort of. It seems... weird, though."

[iamnotpolaris]

"It definitely seems weird. But given that the unicorn did observe that this particular one was non-evil I am slightly less inclined to be suspicious of it. I...think there was some kind of metaphysical gunk which plus super toxic culture was making them be evil. And he was resistant to it, or something, and doesn't have it any more."

[not_only]

"That's kind of a raw deal for the rest of them," he says thoughtfully.

[iamnotpolaris]

"I mean, I don't disagree. But there's kind of a point past which someone's unfortunate backstory is less important than the weapon they're pointing at you."