Fourth Brew | Video | June 4, just after midnight

[vintage_magic]

[When the video starts, there’s only a view of the dimly lit Kishin Chamber’s ceiling and the sound of a Texas twang that’s rarely heard over the network. The voice is a bit distant, as if the speaker is talking to herself rather than the device, and colored by a level of level of exasperation usually reserved for a certain nerdy nuisance of a sorcerer.]

Jiminy Cricket! Not this place again! That cotton-pickin’ contraption always picks the worst times!

[ Really, couldn’t it just leave a witchy person to brew in peace, solve the occasional murder, and fix a supernatural problem once in a while? The voice trails off into a frustrated sigh and less intelligible mutterings. Something about a date? And a soul trapped in a mirror…]

[But the mumblings stop a few moments later when Lily notices the communicator lying on the floor. Dag nab it! Is that smartphone thing on, too? Is that what she dropped when she landed sprawled on the ground?]

[Finally, Lily’s face comes into view as she leans over the communicator, red lipstick slightly smudged and the curl coming out of her 1920s style Marcel waved hair as several brown locks escape from a chignon at the nape of her neck. There’s a bit of a bare shoulder visible for a second before she draws back and only her face can be seen again, expression uncertain as she addresses whoever might be listening. She doesn't like these gadgets but she needs help.]

Um, could someone tell me what day it is? [It had been weeks by her reckoning but she knows how BREW likes to muck with time.]

And I need help with a clothes problem. A woman would probably be better. I can’t go back to my apartment like this…

[Then, she recalls the last thing she remembers about this place being tossing her keys on the kitchen counter after getting back from grocery shopping.]

Dag nab it. I don’t think I have my keys either...

[is there some person in charge of the apartment buildings with spare keys who could let her in? Or does she need to call a locksmith after she gets out of this place?]

Comments

[consider8]

That's my quirk!

[vintage_magic]

[That doesn't really make things any clearer to her.]

...Um, your quirk?

[consider8]

[Oh goody, a chance for exposition.]

A quirk is an intentionally chosen non-conformity which allows for a troll to express a style or aspect of themselves of their personality that is unique. While many trolls and people do this 8y expressing themselves in actions and style, trolls do this in their text as well, as textual medium is one of our most common forms of communication.

And 8esides that, it's fun!

[vintage_magic]

Okay... But I'm not sure if I see how using 8s expresses your personality? [Maybe, she was just too technologically challenged to understand this stuff...]

[consider8]

8ecause 8 is an important num8er for me! 8ecause I have 8 pupils, and 8ecause there are lots of other neat properties 8s can do. For example, did you know that you can divide 8 in half three times and still get even num8ers? That's rather cool!!!!!!!!

...and also, it's not unlike a fixation on any other thing that is venerated as good fortune or as comforting. It's just rather than having the identified concept 8eing venerated 8y a large group, each individual person prescri8es to their own aspect of importance. Even if it only makes sense to themselves.

Like I said, it's a quirk.

[vintage_magic]

Um, okay... [Lily's not sure if she completely got that beyond 'Aranea really likes the number 8.']I guess I'll just have to take your word for it.

[consider8]

It's a cultural thing.

So you were gone for a while? Where did you go?

[vintage_magic]

Yes, it felt like a few weeks. I was back in San Francisco.

[consider8]

Did you enjoy it?

[vintage_magic]

I got to see my friends again and patch some things up but I really wish that BREW contraption would quit interrupting my life. [A small huff.]

[consider8]

I can see how that can 8e frustrating.

[vintage_magic]

Yes, this is already the third time it's sent me home and brought me back again.

[consider8]

Perhaps it is a mercy, for 8REW to allow you to return home for a time to ensure that your affairs are still in order.

You know, not every8ody here has a life to go 8ack to. Sometimes literally.

[vintage_magic]

Maybe, but I wish that goldurned thing would let me finish what I was in the middle of before bringing me back each time.

No life to go back to? [She thinks of what Lezard told her about his world before he was brought here.] Aranea, do you mean your world was destroyed?