reality_crossroads | (no subject)

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The cold hard lands, they bites our hands, they gnaws our feet! The rocks and stones are like old bones, all bare of meat! *Here he pauses: the possible options he's come up with, over the years, for continuing require that he either rhyme 'feet' with itself or use the word 'fish' for two lines in a row. Despite his (admittedly small) ambitions Smeagol is not an especially good poet, nor does he have a wide range of topics to choose from.

*Thus he's going with his usual non-solution to problems he can't deal with, which is to splash at the water while hissing and muttering to himself. Happily he's discovered swim trunks; his old clothes were a nightmare and have been relegated to the rag pile.*

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I bet it does. Honestly, it weirds me out sometimes that I've managed to cram Arcadia and the Nexus and everything that happened in both into just a few years. I think. [since Arcadia didn't run on any normal human timestream. . .]

[that gets a sympathetic look] Well, now you can remember. [he plays another quick little tune on his guitar] And I'm willing to play for ya, if you want.

While nothing new happened to Smeagol for centuries . . .

We would like that.

Yeah. . .sounds pretty damn horrible.

[he smiles] Okay then! This one's one of my favorites -- classic from my world. [Yup, he's launching into 'Johnny B. Goode,' because some things never change]

One too fassst and one too ssslow.

*The music is very strange to him, unsurprisingly.* We don't think we could play that. Wrong fingerses for it. *He stretches out his fingers, which are long and froglike and clammy. Hands for climbing and for swimming, but not for anything needing precision.*

Yeah, basically. At least now things seem to be calming down for me -- and speeding up for you.

[Marty examines his hands] Hey, it took me a good few tries to master it myself with my fingers. I've had a lot of practice on this guitar, let me tell you.

Praps we'll meet in the middle?

We imagine ssso.

Heh, maybe.

Yeah, you don't get good without putting in a lot of effort. [in a softer voice] Sometimes unwillingly. . .

We know about having to learn thingsss, will we or nil we. Even thingses we once loved. We liked to fisssh before, but not with our fingersss.

[he nods] Yeah, most people use a pole and a line, or a net. . . We could probably get one of those for you, if you want. Or make one up, if we can find a good-sized stick and some string.

We don't think we'd be good at the old way anymore, Precious. Handsss work fine. Praps you can use one if you ever wisssh to join us.

Hey, if that's what works for you. . . [he laughs a little] I think I'd have to. I might be good at playing a tune, but I don't think I could keep a grip on a fish!

They are ssslippery, aren't they?

Dunno if I've ever actually touched one that was still alive, actually, but they always looked slippery. I generally only had them after they were dead.

They're jussst so wet. Hard not to be ssslippery, Precious.

Heh, true -- and hard not to be wet when you live in water!

Can't be done.

Nope. [pause] Except maybe in Arcadia. Somehow, I can believe the Fae could manage to make non-wet water.

Hard to imagine, that is.

Yeah, if you've never met one of them. . .their world is WEIRD. You basically have to bargain with EVERYTHING before it'll do stuff for you. So water would only make you wet if you and it both agreed it would.

We don't think we'd like that much. *He thinks a moment.* No, Gollum might. Gollum likes word games. But Smeagol wouldn't be able to trussst anything for certain.

Smeagol's got the right idea. That's the worst thing about Arcadia -- you CAN'T trust anything for certain. You THINK you know the rules, but the -- creature who lives there? Who runs the place? They can change them whenever they like. And they might. Just on a whim. Just to see how it'll affect you. Just to see you suffer. [wooof, he sounds pissed off. Seems like this conversation has hit upon the old buried wells of hatred he has for Fae]

Edited 2020-06-22 04:02 (UTC)

Idle curiosity can be far worssse than hatred. Hatred at leassst means you matter.

Yeah, I know. I'm not sure my Keeper ever really got angry at me or anything. He just -- got bored occasionally and thought it was funny to do shit to my head. I think that's Fae in a nutshell, honestly -- idle curiosity that doesn't care about anyone else.

Gollum can be like that. Sssometimes goblin-children fell down to the pool, they did. Not as often as the grown ones, no, but we were the boogeyman occasionally.

[Marty winces] I see. . .what was it like from the other end? Being the scary one?