2021-10-09 - So, uh...

(TXT to Ravn Itzhak) August : {a picture of a stretched black field with a fuzzy gray image. a sonogram. maybe end of first trimester, given the shape.}

(TXT to August Itzhak) Ravn : YES! I WIN THE OFFICE BETTING POOL!

(TXT to August Itzhak) Ravn : I mean, um. Congratulations? Yes. Congratulations.

(TXT to Itzhak Ravn) August : so, how was YOUR 3 months you don't remember? because mine was apparently REAL productive.

(TXT to Itzhak Ravn) August : you had an office betting pool about when I was going to knock up my wife

(TXT to August Itzhak) Ravn : Let's see, I continued renovations at HOPE, my calendar says I continued tutoring and grading, and I seem to have bought a house -- which I moved into with Aidan Kinney as a roommate. I forgot, apparently, to go get my boat and my cat, the latter who has been on her own twelve week trip through the Veil along with her Veil counterpart.

(TXT to August Itzhak) Ravn : No -- we had an office betting pool that somebody would turn up pregnant. Because narrative, you know? Three months' timelapse? Have you ever watched TV? Somebody turns up pregnant.

(TXT to August Itzhak) Ravn : So, tell me this is good news. You two are happy about the news, right?

(TXT to Ravn Itzhak) August : christ, is the cat okay

(TXT to August Itzhak) Ravn : Cat and Uncat turned up at Kailey Holt's, demanding generous amounts of tuna. She said they looked like they'd had the adventure of a lifetime.

(TXT to Ravn Itzhak) August : shit you might be right though, with the narrative thing. we did...have a wild night during the storm. does this mean my kid is gonna be all village if the damned?

(TXT to August Itzhak) Ravn : If the kid turns out to be yellow-eyed and platinum-haired, maybe we should worry a bit.

(TXT to August Itzhak) Ravn : Kidding. I'm sure it'll be fine. If the Veil wanted to run this trope at us, there'd be like, eight pregnancies, not just one.

(TXT to Ravn Itzhak) August : but yes it's a good thing. we'd been talking about it right before the storm. ...god this kid IS going to be done weird storm baby isn't it? this gd town

(TXT to August Itzhak) Ravn : Might not be a bad thing. Bit of storm in the blood -- I mean, that's a well tested and tried narrative too, the kid who has been touched by the wilds, kind of kin to it. And that kid is usually a saviour type.

(TXT to Ravn Itzhak) August : I have no plans for my kid to be anyone's Savior.

(TXT to August Itzhak) Ravn : At this point, honestly -- I've lived here a year now. I'm starting to just take things as they come. And look for the tropes and archetypes, because they give me a bit of context but really, it's all... It's not all bad, you know? Screwed up in many ways, definitely, but not all bad. Did I tell you I got elected prom queen?

(TXT to August Itzhak) Ravn : Your kid will probably have its own plans -- kids tend to. And who knows? Maybe he or she will save themselves and someone they care for. Not every saviour is a Messiah.

(TXT to Ravn Itzhak) August : don't you use logic on me, I get to be a nervous wreck father to be all I want

(TXT to August Itzhak) Ravn : August uses deflection. August is successful!

(TXT to August Itzhak) Ravn : Seriously, though. Archetypally? A kid conceived during a storm, full moon, whatever, it's the writer's way of saying this kid has some of the mojo. What they do with it, well, time will tell. You can't be very surprised that a kid conceived by you and Eleanor will end up having power. 🙂

(TXT to August Itzhak) Ravn : Also, damnit, when someone tells you they got elected prom queen you're supposed to ask. I'm trying to tell you and Rosencrantz that I got soundly snogged by de la Vega before someone else does.

(TXT to Itzhak Ravn) August : excuse you, I play bulbasaur like any proper botanist

(TXT to August Itzhak) Ravn : Don't you expect me to actually know jack all about Pokémon. Anything I know about it, I gleaned from Mac by accident.

(TXT to Itzhak Ravn) August : woah hold the fucking phone

(TXT to August Itzhak) Ravn : (am pretty sure my phone doesn't do that)

(TXT to Itzhak Ravn) August : you're texting too fast how am I supposed to respond to it yet! swipe slower, have less caffeine

(TXT to Ravn Itzhak) August : was this another of those weird highschool...things

(TXT to August Itzhak) Ravn : If I say I have a lot of practise swiping, that's not good, right?

(TXT to Ravn Itzhak) August : it's perfectly fine but don't expect everyone to go at your pace big guy.

(TXT to August Itzhak) Ravn : Yeah, it was. Me, de la Vega, Hyacinth Addington, and the firefighter -- John? Jonathan? I've only met him a couple of times, didn't catch his last name.

(TXT to Ravn Itzhak) August : hm not sure I know that guy. okay so you and Hya and de la Vega and this guy.

(TXT to August Itzhak) Ravn : It's been a week like that. Or twelve weeks like that, whatever. Fairies, rabid weasels, high school proms, and now you're pregnant. I mean, I know which one is the good news of the week.

(TXT to August Itzhak) Ravn : Yeah. I think the whole point of the dream was for Johnny boy to nearly get killed by a falling light ornament, but, you know how people in this town work, we just sort of shoved that aside and got on with the laughing hysterically. Hyacinth nearly clawed de la Vega's face off on the spot.

(TXT to Itzhak Ravn) August : it's true, I did win the lottery. so far.

(TXT to Itzhak Ravn) August : was he prom King? oh shit hang on are you guys a thing now

(TXT to August Itzhak) Ravn : Me and de la Vega? No, we're not. I mean, no offence to either of us, but we're not exactly each other's type.

(TXT to Itzhak Ravn) August : I mean you and hya, not you and de la Vega. if you and he were a thing my DMs woulda been blown up by you know who a while ago

(TXT to August Itzhak) Ravn : You know who is technically in this conversation though I suspect you know who is either busy or asleep. 😆

(TXT to August Itzhak) Ravn : But yeah. I think we are? Haven't gotten around to hammering out the details, but I'm pretty certain making out madly after that counts.

(TXT to Itzhak Ravn) August : he'll wake up to great news. you kissed his man, my wife is pregnant, you made out with hya. rabid fairy weasels, eh, par for the course around here.

(TXT to August Itzhak) Ravn : Just Monday in Gray Harbor, you know? Also, for the record, his man bloody well kissed me. Which I fully approve of since somebody had to do something, and I was busy being deer in headlights.

(TXT to August Itzhak) Ravn : (Title of my romantic autobiography, if I ever write one: Deer in Headlights).

(TXT to August Itzhak) Ravn : Oh, and we ... I won't say fought a dragon because fighting implies actually doing something. I watched Holt and Kinney chastise a dragon into slinking off in shame? Highschool is going to need a new roof, though.

(TXT to August Itzhak) Ravn : ... And parking lot.

(TXT to Itzhak Ravn) August : ...chastised. so they bapped it on the nose with a rolled up newspaper?

(TXT to Itzhak Ravn) August : bad dragon, no kibble, go over there and think of what you did? guess we know why the highschool needs a new roof

(TXT to August Itzhak) Ravn : Pretty much. They scolded it until it left. I mean that literally. I have never seen anything like it. I thought we were fucked, I mean, what am I going to do an angry animal the size of a locomotive. Then Holt goes at it like it's being a bad kitty, and Kinney joins in, and the damn thing ends up fleeing back into the Veil.

(TXT to Itzhak Ravn) August : okay so I'm adding 'act real fucking disappointed' to my arsenal, got it

(TXT to August Itzhak) Ravn : I mean, I'm sure they used their, yanno, mind powers. But still. It was bloody awesome in that kind of why are my pants wet, oh right way.

(TXT to Itzhak Ravn) August : I mean certainly. but that's why it's good to hang out with those mind people. they can just, make the thing feel bad about its life choices

(TXT to August Itzhak) Ravn : Considering all I'd have been able to do to a dragon would be waving my arms and screaming... Which is what I did. It didn't look very impressed.

(TXT to Itzhak Ravn) August : eh, maybe your art just needs more time. or maybe it just wants you to witness

(TXT to August Itzhak) Ravn : My art is fine. I'm not one of you superheroes, and that's fine. I have other things I can contribute -- and that's not a platitude. Running HOPE makes a difference. I know things that sometimes make a difference. Everyone's got their role -- need mythology researched or pockets picked, I'm your man.

(TXT to Itzhak Ravn) August : excuse you I'm not a superhero I grow plants. but yes it's true, everyone's got things they can do and it doesn't need to be big. a lot of small stuff is still stuff.