twenty ✶ video

[candidly]

[ oh look. gwen's inside a blanket fort she built in the corner of the living room. she's nomming on some marshmallows and she's got her homework next to her. ]

Have you ever done something that you haven't since you were a kid, just for kicks, and found out it's just as awesome as it was when you were five? 'Cause I'm totally having one of those moments right now and I gotta say, if you haven't built a blanket fort in the past five years? You should definitely do it again.

[ there's a pause and she looks around. ]

Extra credit if you can get it to cover your entire living room. I wonder if we've got enough blankets for that...

[ the feed clicks off as gwen gets up, presumably in search of more pillows and blankets. ]

Comments

[glowsferatu]

[ she's still kind of smiling, but in a way that's less amused and more sardonic now ]

A different expression of elevation entirely, yes. But operating an apparatus for the sole purpose of achieving some momentary sensation of ascension before being pried from it once more by gravitational forces still strikes me as rather trivial.

Is flight an experience you've ever found yourself acquainted with, Gwen?

[candidly]

Only when on a plane.

[glowsferatu]

I formerly had the ability in my dreams, but usually there were more important things to be seen to than flying about without a care. I had information to gather which would be vital to our success.

[candidly]

So... your dreams work differently than human dreams. Good to know.

[glowsferatu]

Past tense, actually, and not nearly so exclusive to my species as you suggest.

My point is twofold. First, that a swing would be a poor substitute. Second, that sometimes there are far more important things to be done. A variety of things may depend on my not delaying from my duties for the sake of entertainment.

[candidly]

Everyone needs a break sometime, Kanaya.

[glowsferatu]

But not all of us necessarily deserve it.

[candidly]

Unless you're secretly a crazy axe murderer, you don't think highly enough of yourself.

[glowsferatu]

Chainsaw, actually. And it was entirely earned by the other party.

I think most invest too much regard for their own selves. It can prevent them from taking necessary action when the consequences would be more dire for others if they refrained.

[candidly]

Wait, you—Kanaya!!

[glowsferatu]

[ humans always seemed to react that way to the news. she takes out her compact to give herself something else to look at, her glow increasing a fraction ]

As I said, he was not undeserving. I had at least ensured that my own death would be the last he was responsible for.

[candidly]

But you're like... twelve!! Why are you killing people with chainsaws, you're just a kid!

[glowsferatu]

Hardly! [ huffs so indignantly!! ] My seventh sweep is dawning in the very near future, and even by your reckoning I'll be fifteen before that.

I shouldn't have to kill anyone with a chainsaw were it not for the fact that I've been placed in situations which required my killing someone with a chainsaw. That's really not something I can help!

[candidly]

You're not even a frosh, Kanaya. You're totally a kid still.

And a chainsaw? Isn't that a little, you know, grisly?

[glowsferatu]

And just what is a frosh that I should be so concerned with lack the distinction?

[ she closes the compact which she hasn't even been looking at anyway and puts it away out of frame. ] I used what I had in my possession. Its purpose was not originally as a weapon, a least not exclusively, but it certainly proved effective once it was redirected to that purpose.

[candidly]

A freshman. A frosh is a freshman.

Why are you so blasé about this?

[glowsferatu]

I don't see much point in being so broken up about it. Would you prefer I weep with remorse?

It was hardly so terrible as what preceded it.

[candidly]

... Do I want to know what happened first?

[glowsferatu]

[ wow why did she saying anything, this is the last thing she wanted to get into ]

Probably not.

Suffice it to say that my kind are hardly so squeamish when it is decided that a murderer must be dealt with, especially following his execution of a genocide. Whatever superiority of his caste be damned.

[candidly]

Superiority of his caste?

[glowsferatu]

Stupid Alternian things. Hemospectral social order and things of such sort. It doesn't really matter anymore.

[candidly]

Hemo what now?

[glowsferatu]

Our society was structured into varying rungs according to blood color. And yes, if I can be allowed to answer your inquiry before it is voiced, my species has much greater variegation than your singular hue.

[candidly]

So what makes your blood different colors? Do you know?

[glowsferatu]

Differing pigments, I imagine. At times correlating with other qualities that may be common to the caste, but whether one is perpetuated by the other or something else entirely gives cause to both, I couldn't say.

I could demonstrate, if you like.