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Strike Out! Chapter 6
"I'm such an idiot." I said, staring at the ceiling.
I had gotten the medical potions the healer recommended, there was quite a bit of overlap with Luz's so with Lilith escorting me we stocked up for her as well. Then I took a small swig of glowing blue liquid and felt lucid for the first time in days. I hadn't even realized the fog that had settled over my thoughts until then.
"Haha! yeah." King replied from his stuffed animal fort. I elected to ignore the jab.
"I just never stopped to think" I said, waving an arm around aimlessly, "I've been on the run for the past few days. I haven't had a stable place to sleep, or food to eat. I just keep moving, as if it's a plan to constantly wing it."
"Wait really?" King asked, setting down two plush toys he was miming fighting each other. "That actually really sucks for you. Sorry."
I squinted at the little skull fox-ish demon, trying to discern if he was making fun of me before giving up.
Of course there were things I couldn't say too. Like getting in a car chase and being shot at. Or deciding not to pursue my alternate selves friend and family for help. Getting a Blu-ray box set of the show I was in without access to anything that could play Blu-ray.
And I didn't even have a plan to deal with Owl House canon, what to do about the events I had seen unfold and how I could help stop the worst of it. I had a boxed set of blu-rays to rewatch and a brief wiki dive to guide my way. That wasn't workable. I needed a plan.
"I need some air," I said, pulling myself up from the couch and opening the front door.
"WHERE ARE YOUUUU GOING?" Hooty asked. I ignored him.
"YOU CAN'T IGNORE ME FOREVER. YOU'LL BREAK, THEY ALL BREAK."
Walking through the woods I tried to put together my thoughts.
"Ok," I said out loud, "What's the plan?"
I let the question hang in the air for a second.
"Fuck," I mumbled. Taking a breath I tried again.
"Big picture: take out Belos. Fate already has a path towards that, but Eda loses her hand, and King loses her dad. And who knows what butterflies I've already introduced. No, I have to take care of him before the day of unity."
I took a moment to think that over, taking a big step over a fallen log.
"Can I make sure the intrusion into Belos' mind goes according to plan?" I wondered. "No, He knows the entire time Luz and Hunter are there. He uses them to kill the palismin souls in him. Plus it's the turning point for hunter. He needs to be redeemed, or at least protected, or else when he does defy or disappoint Belos too much he'll die."
I sighed, this was all too complicated. Maybe it was time to take a different approach.
"What do I have to work with?" I asked the forest.
"Disregarding Silent Hill, not going back there, I have two universes to pull from: an alternate version of my own, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. I could find more, I have time, but I think my power drops me in the middle of the plot of wherever I end up. Fixing canon somewhere else will only divide my attention, and is a gamble I'd find anything useful. So what does that leave me with? The two universes?"
"Firearms? I could probably get a lot of heavy-duty stuff from Roger Rabbit since they had laxer gun laws back then. I think. But guns don't really level the playing field. Maybe, Maybe some acme products could be useful. But I can't bank on cartoon logic being reliable enough."
"I've got my power itself..." I paused. That wasn't a bad Idea. "If I can take people with me all I need to do is touch Belos and then strand him in Silent Hill. Either that town will eat him alive or he'll eat the town alive. Maybe do more research. Still. Belos isn't much of a threat to a human population. At least not until he's learned which hunters are archaic relics of the past."
A thought crossed my mind
"Or joins team Nazi."
I let out a long groan. I saw a break in the trees up ahead, a grassy hill. the sound of the ocean grew closer. I walked up the hill and found it overlooking the boiling sea, with a beautiful purple flowered tree unlike the rest of the flora around. I thought I recognized it, a bit. Something Luz grew? I think she and amity danced there after Grom? Not important.
I sat my tote bag down, then laid back against the tree and took in the sights. It was so beautifully alien. And yet it was real. It's real.
"Maybe I should watch through the show again. I need to understand all the pieces. The way the story goes. How Luz and Eda fit into everything. If I can watch their trials again, and how they beat Belos and the collector, I might be able to form a coherent plan."
I closed my eyes and let the sound of the sea and alien animal life wash over me. It was doable. I was back on my meds. I could think this through. I could do it smart. Not by the seat of my pants like Roger Rabbit. Not scrambling for the safety of a room over my head like before. Focus.
"I thought something was off about you" The unmistakable voice of Eda Clawthorn pierced my heart like a cold knife.
I opened my eyes and saw her standing above me, arms crossed. Oh fuck. She grabbed me by the hoodie and lifted me off the ground. My blood started pounding in my ears.
"I don't exactly get all that mumbo jumbo you were speaking, but you've been watching us, haven't you? It's how you knew about Luz's books. How you knew I needed money and what deal to strike. You came to us ready to move us like pieces across a board."
I struggled to break free of her grasp, flailing wildly on instinct, terrified out of my mind.
"Did you plan on zapping King with that power of yours?"
Oh, god. I fucked up. How could I have be so stupid to think this was all under my control? That my knowledge from a cartoon was enough to play chess master?
"No! Please!" I yelled, desperate. "I never meant to lie to you. I just didn't want to tell you the whole truth, you wouldn't belive it!"
"Try. Me." The witch growled.
"The box in my bag! Look at it!"
Eda dropped me. I was relieved a second before she slapped a paper on me and suddenly vines grew out of the ground and wrapped around me, holding me in place as she checked my bag.
Bringing the boxed set of The Owl House up to inspect, Eda squinted, reading out loud "Blue ray? 'Disney The Owl House, season one, season two, season three. The Complete Season one through three'."
Then she flipped it to the other side.
"'The Owl House follows Luz, a self-assured teenage girl who accidentally stumbles upon a portal to a magical world where she befriends a rebellious witch, Eda, and an adorable tiny warrior, king.' warrior? ha! 'Despite not having magical abilities, Luz pursues her dream of becoming a witch by serving as Eda's apprentice at the Owl House and ultimately finds a new family in an unlikely setting.' what in Titan's name is this?"
Eda pulled one of the disc cases from the box and flipped it open. "Human metal Frisbees?" she muttered, snapping it closed and putting it back.
Then she turned back to me, a mix of confusion and dissipating anger playing across her face.
"Why do you have this? What is this? It has our faces illustrated on it, It has a description of Luz's life like it's a bad crystal ball drama, and its human."
I considered lying for a second, but to be honest? I was fucking tired. I got my wake-up call. Time to come clean.
"It's from my world, or, the parallel version of it. Its similar enough to the one I knew from my world that it doesn't make much of a difference" I explained, "And you're kind of right with the crystal ball thing, It's an animated show. Moving drawings."
I could see the gears turning in Eda's head, catch, then sputter in confusion, unable to reach a conclusion that made sense. She blinked several times, looking between me and the box set.
"Was this based on us? Is there some Luz in your world that became famous?" Eda asked. She didn't sound like she believed her own questions. Grasping at straws.
I shook my head, "No, It was created for a young audience, a story crafted to relate to the weirdos and outcasts. A story about forging your own path and finding your own family. Of fighting back against the systems that oppress creativity, freedom, and self-expression.
"I don't know why, but My power, aside from the parallel world I first ended up in after using my power for the first time, seem to bring me to universes that are fictional in my world. I don't think I'm jumping into stories or anything, that would discount your agency as living, breathing people. No, I think that if there are truly infinite universes, some of them have to match fiction from my world."
"-and fiction from this world. What you said about Luz's Azura books wasn't a comparison, you didn't mean a world similar to her books, you meant a world that matched her books exactly. because you're living it."
I just nodded at that. Eda looked away. a full minute passed before she turned back to me.
"Did you just want to meet your heroes? Have us sign that box? No, you were talking about plans." Eda narrowed her eyes. "You know what's going to happen, What the Day of Unity is, what Belos is planning, and how it all turns out. And you want to change it."
"I do. People will suffer otherwise. They'll die. The Boiling Isles will be partially destroyed."
Eda seemed to study me for a second, before she seemed satisfied I was telling the truth. But then I think the implications set in and she sagged.
"Well, Fuck." Eda said.
"-and that's how and why I know who you are." I finished explaining to Luz, King, and, sigh, Hooty. Eda was leaning against a wall, having already heard it all.
Luz sat clutching the box set, her eyes not having left it since I brought it out to show them. I sat next to her on the couch, though I tried to give her some space.
"My life is a TV show." She murmured.
Fuck. I knew it was a bad idea to tell her, but Eda insisted. It was even a worse idea to let Hooty know, but he would learn eventually from overhearing conversations, he was the owl house after all.
"My life is a TV show!" King exclaimed with glee. "I only learned what that was five minutes ago, but I'm a Star!"
At least someone was taking it well.
"IIIIII'M THE TITLE CHARACTER!" Hooty said, fluttering his eyelashes with faux bashfulness.
"Guys..." Luz said, immediately wiping the smile off those two chucklefucks and replacing them with looks of concern. "I... I don't know what to make of this. I made the mistake of thinking I was the protagonist when I first came her, but I learned better than that! Didn't I? I'm not the center of the universe, but I'm its main character?!"
"No!" I said, reaching out, before pulling my hand back. "That's not how it works! Any series of events can be woven into a narrative. I don't know if you've got Hamilton in your world, but it's basically a musical about the US's first treasurer of the same name. His life was fairly dull in history class, but punch that up with some songs and some decent character work, and it becomes, well not good, but interesting, at least.
"I think I'm here, because in some way, I want to connect to the worlds I find in fiction. But those worlds don't exist, there's no one-to-one connection between the cartoon on those disks and this place. It's a cosmic coincidence. Infinite possible universes means one of them has to line up with a world depicted in fiction."
"You don't know that," Luz said. I opened my mouth to make another argument "We were testing your powers YESTERDAY!"
For all the confidence I had in my explanation... She was right, I had no way of knowing for sure. The rules of reality broke the moment I woke up in a different universe. If there are new ones I didn't know them. But...
"I know you're a real person." I said, reaching out and gently grabbing her shoulders. "Thinking anything less would be monstrous. You make your own choices. You have your own thoughts, your own feelings. You aren't some static thing a writer created. Sure where I come from you can be described by a cartoon, but your personhood is so much more infinitely complex than could ever be captured by drawings and voice actors. I have to believe that. And I haven't seen anything so far that proved me wrong."
Luz took a breath and screwed her eyes shut. She gently brushed my hands off her shoulders and stood up.
"I need some time, ok?" She asked, looking over the people assembled in the living room, before walking out. I heard a door close gently from further in the house and slumped down against the back of the couch.
"Oh I fucked up so bad." I muttered.
"Don't be so dramatic" Eda said, walking over to sit in the spot Luz had vacated, "Luz is a strong kid. Stronger than most. She took to the Boiling Isles like a firefish in lava. Give her some time."
"Yeah!" King said, climbing up on the armrest next to Eda, "Soon enough we'll be taking our glamour shots together and have a glossy stack of photos to sign for fans, and we'll be mock interviewing each other like: 'King, how does it feel to be the favorite character in the hit show, The Owl House?' and I'll say something silly like: 'Oh It's nothing, I'm just naturally so great that the writers couldn't help but make me look awesome'. And then we'll laugh about it!"
I was thoroughly unprepared for Kings ramble. I knew he was taking this in stride, but It was surprisingly forward-thinking of the young demon to think about how they'd play and joke about their status as cartoon characters. He made it seem so normal to just accept it like that. And I believed him. It was going to be ok.
"WE GOTTA WATCH THE SHOW, THOUGH! MOVIE NIGHT!!!!!" Hooty butted in, stretching his weird bird tube self in-between me and Eda to flail at the remote with his face. Wait, the remote?
What looked like a remote control was sitting on the coffee table. I picked it up and realized it wasn't made from plastic but from... chitin? Yeah, that would track with the Boiling Isles. I pressed the power button and what I had assumed was a decorative crystal ball(Look It's not so easy to adjust to magic being real It's been like four days ok???) lit up. Some kind of soap opera was playing. I switched it off, curiosity satisfied.
"I don't think your Crystal Ball reads Blu-ray discs. And I don't have the money to pay for anything that could."
"You could always steal it." Eda suggested offhandedly.
Barry!
@BarrowTrauma.bsky.social
uhhh. so my friend works at a wallmart and sent me this video he took of the security cameras. Someone in an Owl House cosplay just shoplifed several thousand dollars worth of goods here in #cinncinati #based [EdaAgainstCapitalism.mp4]
video is a blurry overhead shot of a woman with a huge head of silver gray hair running around with a burlap sack amongst shelves, stopping, checking a list, before dumping something in to the before continuing to run. Shot cuts to a different angle near the door where security guards desperately chase after her.
|
|
Barry!
@BarrowTrauma.bsky.social Update: police actually showed up. Not because of the shoplifting, but because of the flash of green lightning that happened shortly after. Friend overheard them say, and I qoute: "Maybe its some kind of Antifa bomb?" Jesus Christ these guys are bored out of their skulls if they're chasing meteorological phenomena to pin on protesters.
Daniel squinted at his phone. He'd followed Barry after Aster had introduced them. A friend they had made before leaving Cincinnati. Weird things kept happening there. Then there was a ping from his computer, which brought him back down to the reality of work.
Clicking through work emails and replying he looked up every once in a while, taking in the museum lobby. Work was... fine. He liked when he got to work on exhibits like the Sci-fi history hall, or the interactive indie game showcase. One of the better things about working in the museum of Pop Culture.
Daniel just felt like he could have been doing more. A master's degree in history and he ended up here. Well he guessed he couldn't complain, at least he made enough to support himself and his partner. A lot of people his age couldn't say that.
Once he was clear of his work emails he checked his personal ones, still thinking about his partner's hometown. And low and behold, he got an email back from one Devon Richter. Apparently, the guy had seen Aster yesterday. Printed them a new library card, even. The identity thief situation was getting weirder, but hadn't yet caused any actual harm.
"Remember Danny, evil is almost never so simple as a bad person doing bad things. You do need to defend yourself from harm, but take a second to ask Why someone is doing what they're doing. You'd be surprised at how often it's someone that needs help"
The words long ago rang like a bell in his head. He was calmer these days, but he had a nasty mean streak as a kid. Saw everything in black and white until someone had shown him how people actually were. God knows it wasn't his parents.
That reminded him of something, though. A project he had tried to put together for his media history class back in college. It was rejected for being too recent and missing the source material, but... he was working at the MoPop now. Plus, complaining about it on a shared discord server was how he'd met Aster. Maybe he could put it together now?
It couldn't hurt to ask, since he was already talking to this library guy. So he decided to add a PS to his next message asking if he had ever seen a certain VHS tape.
"I'm such an idiot." I said, staring at the ceiling.
I had gotten the medical potions the healer recommended, there was quite a bit of overlap with Luz's so with Lilith escorting me we stocked up for her as well. Then I took a small swig of glowing blue liquid and felt lucid for the first time in days. I hadn't even realized the fog that had settled over my thoughts until then.
"Haha! yeah." King replied from his stuffed animal fort. I elected to ignore the jab.
"I just never stopped to think" I said, waving an arm around aimlessly, "I've been on the run for the past few days. I haven't had a stable place to sleep, or food to eat. I just keep moving, as if it's a plan to constantly wing it."
"Wait really?" King asked, setting down two plush toys he was miming fighting each other. "That actually really sucks for you. Sorry."
I squinted at the little skull fox-ish demon, trying to discern if he was making fun of me before giving up.
Of course there were things I couldn't say too. Like getting in a car chase and being shot at. Or deciding not to pursue my alternate selves friend and family for help. Getting a Blu-ray box set of the show I was in without access to anything that could play Blu-ray.
And I didn't even have a plan to deal with Owl House canon, what to do about the events I had seen unfold and how I could help stop the worst of it. I had a boxed set of blu-rays to rewatch and a brief wiki dive to guide my way. That wasn't workable. I needed a plan.
"I need some air," I said, pulling myself up from the couch and opening the front door.
"WHERE ARE YOUUUU GOING?" Hooty asked. I ignored him.
"YOU CAN'T IGNORE ME FOREVER. YOU'LL BREAK, THEY ALL BREAK."
Walking through the woods I tried to put together my thoughts.
"Ok," I said out loud, "What's the plan?"
I let the question hang in the air for a second.
"Fuck," I mumbled. Taking a breath I tried again.
"Big picture: take out Belos. Fate already has a path towards that, but Eda loses her hand, and King loses her dad. And who knows what butterflies I've already introduced. No, I have to take care of him before the day of unity."
I took a moment to think that over, taking a big step over a fallen log.
"Can I make sure the intrusion into Belos' mind goes according to plan?" I wondered. "No, He knows the entire time Luz and Hunter are there. He uses them to kill the palismin souls in him. Plus it's the turning point for hunter. He needs to be redeemed, or at least protected, or else when he does defy or disappoint Belos too much he'll die."
I sighed, this was all too complicated. Maybe it was time to take a different approach.
"What do I have to work with?" I asked the forest.
"Disregarding Silent Hill, not going back there, I have two universes to pull from: an alternate version of my own, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. I could find more, I have time, but I think my power drops me in the middle of the plot of wherever I end up. Fixing canon somewhere else will only divide my attention, and is a gamble I'd find anything useful. So what does that leave me with? The two universes?"
"Firearms? I could probably get a lot of heavy-duty stuff from Roger Rabbit since they had laxer gun laws back then. I think. But guns don't really level the playing field. Maybe, Maybe some acme products could be useful. But I can't bank on cartoon logic being reliable enough."
"I've got my power itself..." I paused. That wasn't a bad Idea. "If I can take people with me all I need to do is touch Belos and then strand him in Silent Hill. Either that town will eat him alive or he'll eat the town alive. Maybe do more research. Still. Belos isn't much of a threat to a human population. At least not until he's learned which hunters are archaic relics of the past."
A thought crossed my mind
"Or joins team Nazi."
I let out a long groan. I saw a break in the trees up ahead, a grassy hill. the sound of the ocean grew closer. I walked up the hill and found it overlooking the boiling sea, with a beautiful purple flowered tree unlike the rest of the flora around. I thought I recognized it, a bit. Something Luz grew? I think she and amity danced there after Grom? Not important.
I sat my tote bag down, then laid back against the tree and took in the sights. It was so beautifully alien. And yet it was real. It's real.
"Maybe I should watch through the show again. I need to understand all the pieces. The way the story goes. How Luz and Eda fit into everything. If I can watch their trials again, and how they beat Belos and the collector, I might be able to form a coherent plan."
I closed my eyes and let the sound of the sea and alien animal life wash over me. It was doable. I was back on my meds. I could think this through. I could do it smart. Not by the seat of my pants like Roger Rabbit. Not scrambling for the safety of a room over my head like before. Focus.
"I thought something was off about you" The unmistakable voice of Eda Clawthorn pierced my heart like a cold knife.
I opened my eyes and saw her standing above me, arms crossed. Oh fuck. She grabbed me by the hoodie and lifted me off the ground. My blood started pounding in my ears.
"I don't exactly get all that mumbo jumbo you were speaking, but you've been watching us, haven't you? It's how you knew about Luz's books. How you knew I needed money and what deal to strike. You came to us ready to move us like pieces across a board."
I struggled to break free of her grasp, flailing wildly on instinct, terrified out of my mind.
"Did you plan on zapping King with that power of yours?"
Oh, god. I fucked up. How could I have be so stupid to think this was all under my control? That my knowledge from a cartoon was enough to play chess master?
"No! Please!" I yelled, desperate. "I never meant to lie to you. I just didn't want to tell you the whole truth, you wouldn't belive it!"
"Try. Me." The witch growled.
"The box in my bag! Look at it!"
Eda dropped me. I was relieved a second before she slapped a paper on me and suddenly vines grew out of the ground and wrapped around me, holding me in place as she checked my bag.
Bringing the boxed set of The Owl House up to inspect, Eda squinted, reading out loud "Blue ray? 'Disney The Owl House, season one, season two, season three. The Complete Season one through three'."
Then she flipped it to the other side.
"'The Owl House follows Luz, a self-assured teenage girl who accidentally stumbles upon a portal to a magical world where she befriends a rebellious witch, Eda, and an adorable tiny warrior, king.' warrior? ha! 'Despite not having magical abilities, Luz pursues her dream of becoming a witch by serving as Eda's apprentice at the Owl House and ultimately finds a new family in an unlikely setting.' what in Titan's name is this?"
Eda pulled one of the disc cases from the box and flipped it open. "Human metal Frisbees?" she muttered, snapping it closed and putting it back.
Then she turned back to me, a mix of confusion and dissipating anger playing across her face.
"Why do you have this? What is this? It has our faces illustrated on it, It has a description of Luz's life like it's a bad crystal ball drama, and its human."
I considered lying for a second, but to be honest? I was fucking tired. I got my wake-up call. Time to come clean.
"It's from my world, or, the parallel version of it. Its similar enough to the one I knew from my world that it doesn't make much of a difference" I explained, "And you're kind of right with the crystal ball thing, It's an animated show. Moving drawings."
I could see the gears turning in Eda's head, catch, then sputter in confusion, unable to reach a conclusion that made sense. She blinked several times, looking between me and the box set.
"Was this based on us? Is there some Luz in your world that became famous?" Eda asked. She didn't sound like she believed her own questions. Grasping at straws.
I shook my head, "No, It was created for a young audience, a story crafted to relate to the weirdos and outcasts. A story about forging your own path and finding your own family. Of fighting back against the systems that oppress creativity, freedom, and self-expression.
"I don't know why, but My power, aside from the parallel world I first ended up in after using my power for the first time, seem to bring me to universes that are fictional in my world. I don't think I'm jumping into stories or anything, that would discount your agency as living, breathing people. No, I think that if there are truly infinite universes, some of them have to match fiction from my world."
"-and fiction from this world. What you said about Luz's Azura books wasn't a comparison, you didn't mean a world similar to her books, you meant a world that matched her books exactly. because you're living it."
I just nodded at that. Eda looked away. a full minute passed before she turned back to me.
"Did you just want to meet your heroes? Have us sign that box? No, you were talking about plans." Eda narrowed her eyes. "You know what's going to happen, What the Day of Unity is, what Belos is planning, and how it all turns out. And you want to change it."
"I do. People will suffer otherwise. They'll die. The Boiling Isles will be partially destroyed."
Eda seemed to study me for a second, before she seemed satisfied I was telling the truth. But then I think the implications set in and she sagged.
"Well, Fuck." Eda said.
"-and that's how and why I know who you are." I finished explaining to Luz, King, and, sigh, Hooty. Eda was leaning against a wall, having already heard it all.
Luz sat clutching the box set, her eyes not having left it since I brought it out to show them. I sat next to her on the couch, though I tried to give her some space.
"My life is a TV show." She murmured.
Fuck. I knew it was a bad idea to tell her, but Eda insisted. It was even a worse idea to let Hooty know, but he would learn eventually from overhearing conversations, he was the owl house after all.
"My life is a TV show!" King exclaimed with glee. "I only learned what that was five minutes ago, but I'm a Star!"
At least someone was taking it well.
"IIIIII'M THE TITLE CHARACTER!" Hooty said, fluttering his eyelashes with faux bashfulness.
"Guys..." Luz said, immediately wiping the smile off those two chucklefucks and replacing them with looks of concern. "I... I don't know what to make of this. I made the mistake of thinking I was the protagonist when I first came her, but I learned better than that! Didn't I? I'm not the center of the universe, but I'm its main character?!"
"No!" I said, reaching out, before pulling my hand back. "That's not how it works! Any series of events can be woven into a narrative. I don't know if you've got Hamilton in your world, but it's basically a musical about the US's first treasurer of the same name. His life was fairly dull in history class, but punch that up with some songs and some decent character work, and it becomes, well not good, but interesting, at least.
"I think I'm here, because in some way, I want to connect to the worlds I find in fiction. But those worlds don't exist, there's no one-to-one connection between the cartoon on those disks and this place. It's a cosmic coincidence. Infinite possible universes means one of them has to line up with a world depicted in fiction."
"You don't know that," Luz said. I opened my mouth to make another argument "We were testing your powers YESTERDAY!"
For all the confidence I had in my explanation... She was right, I had no way of knowing for sure. The rules of reality broke the moment I woke up in a different universe. If there are new ones I didn't know them. But...
"I know you're a real person." I said, reaching out and gently grabbing her shoulders. "Thinking anything less would be monstrous. You make your own choices. You have your own thoughts, your own feelings. You aren't some static thing a writer created. Sure where I come from you can be described by a cartoon, but your personhood is so much more infinitely complex than could ever be captured by drawings and voice actors. I have to believe that. And I haven't seen anything so far that proved me wrong."
Luz took a breath and screwed her eyes shut. She gently brushed my hands off her shoulders and stood up.
"I need some time, ok?" She asked, looking over the people assembled in the living room, before walking out. I heard a door close gently from further in the house and slumped down against the back of the couch.
"Oh I fucked up so bad." I muttered.
"Don't be so dramatic" Eda said, walking over to sit in the spot Luz had vacated, "Luz is a strong kid. Stronger than most. She took to the Boiling Isles like a firefish in lava. Give her some time."
"Yeah!" King said, climbing up on the armrest next to Eda, "Soon enough we'll be taking our glamour shots together and have a glossy stack of photos to sign for fans, and we'll be mock interviewing each other like: 'King, how does it feel to be the favorite character in the hit show, The Owl House?' and I'll say something silly like: 'Oh It's nothing, I'm just naturally so great that the writers couldn't help but make me look awesome'. And then we'll laugh about it!"
I was thoroughly unprepared for Kings ramble. I knew he was taking this in stride, but It was surprisingly forward-thinking of the young demon to think about how they'd play and joke about their status as cartoon characters. He made it seem so normal to just accept it like that. And I believed him. It was going to be ok.
"WE GOTTA WATCH THE SHOW, THOUGH! MOVIE NIGHT!!!!!" Hooty butted in, stretching his weird bird tube self in-between me and Eda to flail at the remote with his face. Wait, the remote?
What looked like a remote control was sitting on the coffee table. I picked it up and realized it wasn't made from plastic but from... chitin? Yeah, that would track with the Boiling Isles. I pressed the power button and what I had assumed was a decorative crystal ball(Look It's not so easy to adjust to magic being real It's been like four days ok???) lit up. Some kind of soap opera was playing. I switched it off, curiosity satisfied.
"I don't think your Crystal Ball reads Blu-ray discs. And I don't have the money to pay for anything that could."
"You could always steal it." Eda suggested offhandedly.
Barry!
@BarrowTrauma.bsky.social
uhhh. so my friend works at a wallmart and sent me this video he took of the security cameras. Someone in an Owl House cosplay just shoplifed several thousand dollars worth of goods here in #cinncinati #based [EdaAgainstCapitalism.mp4]
video is a blurry overhead shot of a woman with a huge head of silver gray hair running around with a burlap sack amongst shelves, stopping, checking a list, before dumping something in to the before continuing to run. Shot cuts to a different angle near the door where security guards desperately chase after her.
|
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Barry!
@BarrowTrauma.bsky.social Update: police actually showed up. Not because of the shoplifting, but because of the flash of green lightning that happened shortly after. Friend overheard them say, and I qoute: "Maybe its some kind of Antifa bomb?" Jesus Christ these guys are bored out of their skulls if they're chasing meteorological phenomena to pin on protesters.
Daniel squinted at his phone. He'd followed Barry after Aster had introduced them. A friend they had made before leaving Cincinnati. Weird things kept happening there. Then there was a ping from his computer, which brought him back down to the reality of work.
Clicking through work emails and replying he looked up every once in a while, taking in the museum lobby. Work was... fine. He liked when he got to work on exhibits like the Sci-fi history hall, or the interactive indie game showcase. One of the better things about working in the museum of Pop Culture.
Daniel just felt like he could have been doing more. A master's degree in history and he ended up here. Well he guessed he couldn't complain, at least he made enough to support himself and his partner. A lot of people his age couldn't say that.
Once he was clear of his work emails he checked his personal ones, still thinking about his partner's hometown. And low and behold, he got an email back from one Devon Richter. Apparently, the guy had seen Aster yesterday. Printed them a new library card, even. The identity thief situation was getting weirder, but hadn't yet caused any actual harm.
"Remember Danny, evil is almost never so simple as a bad person doing bad things. You do need to defend yourself from harm, but take a second to ask Why someone is doing what they're doing. You'd be surprised at how often it's someone that needs help"
The words long ago rang like a bell in his head. He was calmer these days, but he had a nasty mean streak as a kid. Saw everything in black and white until someone had shown him how people actually were. God knows it wasn't his parents.
That reminded him of something, though. A project he had tried to put together for his media history class back in college. It was rejected for being too recent and missing the source material, but... he was working at the MoPop now. Plus, complaining about it on a shared discord server was how he'd met Aster. Maybe he could put it together now?
It couldn't hurt to ask, since he was already talking to this library guy. So he decided to add a PS to his next message asking if he had ever seen a certain VHS tape.
