wish upon a star

"No, no, you're fine! You're perfect. I just like playing carnival games. I used to go to the County Fair back near my hometown," she says, not sure if she wanted to really explain driving an hour and a half south of Cleveland, OH for a tiny fair in the scare Ohio hills. "This all just... brings back a lot of fond memories. Are you -- uh -- looking to play anything else?"

"I've heard they have really good carnivals there! Oh, wait, sorry, you asked me a question. I definitely want to play more games! These are so fun and the prizes are so cute. Look, I got this thing for getting a ring on a bottle." She waggled the little multi-coloured hand-shaped clapper back and forth so it clacked together.

He nodded decisively, as if this wasn’t a completely subjective rule that he just made up.

“Don’t let him get to you,” said Gil, standing up to get his own drink. “He just thinks life is more fun when he makes up a bunch of arbitrary bylines for himself. I don’t know why.”

“It keeps things spicy!” 

“Your drink looks good,” said Gil, apologetically. 

"I think made up rules are even sillier than real rules," she declared with a friendly smile. "Society already has so many silly rules. Like--you aren't supposed to eat ice cream for breakfast. Why not? It tastes the same! Or you need to wait a day to text back a new person you're talking to. Why would I do that? If I meet someone new and they're someone I want to talk to--we should talk! And you're supposed to dress a certain way at certain events because you might upset someone if you don't--but it is all just clothes!"

Evangeline huffed a little breath. She was very passionate about silly rules that kept people from doing the things that they wanted to do.

"If you want a pumpkin spice latte, even in the middle of the summer, you should get one!"

"What?! How--" she yelped gleefully as Meg's water gun went off.

But then, she refocused on her own. The stream of water hit the target, but she was already far behind. Her pole rose steadily but when she glanced over at Meg's her own gun moved and she had to recenter it again.

Another loud bell went off and one of the people down the row from them's pole started flashing bright coloured lights.

Evangeline laughed. "Wow! That was fun! Sorry if I distracted you from winning."

Great! Meg nodded enthusiastically, "Yea, yes. Of course, I'd love to, yes," Meg says. "Hi, I'm Meg," she says. "I'm not terribly good, is that okay?"

[outfit.]

"My name is Evangeline! They said something about having to aim at that little hole but I keep pressing the button and nothing happens!"

"Hey! Hi!" Evangeline said, waving down a nice looking woman. (She was pretty, but she also looked friendly! Which was important when flagging down random strangers, Evangeline had learned.)

"Hi, that man says we need another person before we can play." She pointed ot the booth with stools that she'd just hopped off of. It was the game where you shoot the water at the hole and the little pole raises, I'm too lazy to look up what it is called.

"Do you think you could do it? I have extra tickets!"

She picked up some of the take away boxes and opened them, spilling some of the food from each onto the plate so long as it was vegetarian which Imperial City did quite a bit of, and also a giant heaping of rice. "I do love the selection too. Why not try a little bit of everything."

"If you want anything off my plate, you can have it!" Evangeline told Arista as she started plating things as well. "I love sharing."

It was true, she did! There was something novel to it. Stars didn't share anything. Not even fields of gravity. Each of them had their own spaces, their own planets that orbited them (if they were lucky), their own asteroid fields. Nothing could get too close to them.

"We can definitely have official roommate dinners though...I'm not that good of a cook. Are you? I would love to learn! My girlfriends and friends have taught me things here or there but...sometimes it can still be hard. There is a lot to remember!"

"I get that," he said, looking down to push and pull his straw through the lid, feeling the tapioca balls at the bottom of the cup moving around. Ken didn't like losing people either.

But now that he had this thing inside of him, it felt like it was only a matter of time. Either that, or he lost himself to it. Which was worse? He didn't know. Didn't want to find out.

"But," Ken looked up at her, smiling, "if he didn't want to remain friends, that's his loss. And you'll gain more people. It won't replace him, you know, but just because you lost someone doesn't mean you can't find others! Friends, partners, they're still out there waiting for you."

Stars lived a very, very long time. And there was rarely any change to their lives.

It was an adjustment, but it just meant Evangeline always wanted to hold so much tighter to people she did love and care about.

"You're right," she said, taking another noisy sip of her boba. It was almost finished now. "Thank you, Ken. I always appreciate your perspective and advice. I love you." She smiled prettily at him.

That was the problem; the longer you stayed, the more reasons they had to leave. Mitte hummed against her lips, and wondered how much time they'd have. Not enough, not now that she was unchanging as the world aged around her.

She blinked once, staring at Evy for a long moment, trying to find proof of a lie in the race of her heartbeat or some twitch of her face, but there was nothing. "No one has ever said that to me." She admitted quietly, swallowing around some strange lump in her throat. "...I don't really always like it. Being a vampire." Mitte carried on, searching for something-- what did she want to hear, really? The truth had become a confused concept. "I miss sweating. And the sun."

She supposed, really, no one had ever said they liked listening to her or what she had to say--at least, not in so many words. But she had lots of friends who did ask how she was feeling about things. And they listened. And they cared.

Her whole, long star-life, all Evangeline had been able to do was listen. It was frustrating sometimes, but it also made her very good at it. She was happy to listen. She enjoyed listening. It was even better now, because she could say things that could help--or comfort.

"I could understand that. I love the sun," Evangeline said. She'd marveled, and continued to marvel, at how warm it felt against her sun. Sweat, too, was a marvel to her. Just like everything else that had to do with having a body.

"It is so different. Going from one form to another. There will be things that you miss." Evangeline, even, sometimes missed the darkness. Her spot in the sky. Her own pull of gravity. The way she used to shine. "That's okay. It is a little sad and that's okay too." She smiled, like this was the easiest thing in the world to understand. "You just have to find the things you like about it too!"

"milky way" is obviously milk, but the hidden part is that "galaxy" comes from the Greek γάλα (gála), meaning "milk".

Animalia (of the anima.) we are in the Kingdom of the Breathing, or the Air-Souled.

Of the Phylum (tribe or clan) Chordata (having a string). We are the Clan of the String, referencing the spinal cord.

Class Mammalia, of course. the division of the titties.

Order Primate, which is a bit stuck-up, but I suppose the people doing the naming get to pick. Primate is of course primary, or First/Highest. Interestingly, this is in the sense of it being a job; a primate is a bishop of Christianity. This is reflected in the medieval Scala Naturae, where “primate” is an office held by the “natural” or divinely appointed top being in each tier of existence. Seraphim are the primate angels; humans are the primate people; lions are the primate animals; oak trees are the primate plants; and diamonds are the primate minerals. Translating the intent here, we are the Order of Ordained Authority, which we share with other natural bosses such as lemurs.

Depending how you want to do this, we are also suborder Haplorhini, the dry-nosed. This is separated from wet-nosed apes.

After this we land in the repetition of Homina-homina-homina-homina where there are several classes that drill down ever further, all of them rooted in “hominid.” Everyone knows homo is “man, human” but the root of why it’s “man” is because it is first “earth”. Human means “earthling”, and is rooted in “not-divine.” We are the family, subfamily, tribe and genus of earthlings.

By the time you get to species we are very lonely indeed, with only one species in our genus. This is actually a terrifically lonely place, and in this we are “sapiens.” This doesn’t mean just “wise” but “being wise,” which is more of a duty than a descriptor.

When you put it in context: Domain of Fortunate Nuclei, Kingdom of the Air-Souled, Clan of the String, Class of Milky Boobs, Order of the Bosses, Family of Earthlings, Tribe of Earthlings, People of Earth, Earthlings, Thinking Earthlings.

In another lifetime, in another world, maybe it was something that could happen.

But here? Now? With the cards he’d been dealt? 

No matter how much he wished for things to be different, it would never happen.

It had been a couple of weeks, though, which made it even more egregious that Gil found himself thinking about getting married while Leo waxed on about how it was too damn early for Pumpkin Spice Lattes, thank you very much.

“It’s barely September,” grumbled Leo. “At least give summer a mourning period. Maybe after the equinox — oh hey!” He waved to a young lady who’d just sat down at a table near them at Hatter’s. “I think you dropped your wallet back there?” 

But now! They were back on the menu and she was so excited.

As she waited eagerly, she listened to the wishes that popped up around her. She always did this because no one had ever, really, taught her that it might be rude. She liked to know what people were wishing and she liked to try to help, if she could.

There were two people wishing, very loudly, about wanting to be together. Which happened more than you thought! The first time she had gone up to a couple and told them, though, one of them had left crying--it had been one of the first lessons Evy had gotten in tact.

So, she tended to leave it alone, especially if she didn't know them.

The wishing was loud and distracting and once she'd gotten her PSL, she was scurrying away so that she didn't say something--

When, lo and behold: one of the men approached her. "What? Oh! Wow! Thank you!!" she said, retracing her steps to the counter. "Oh--is this your drink? Sorry, I overheard you ordering..." That wasn't true but she had heard the name Leo in the other man's thoughts.

[outfit]

When you ask for directions on the street someone will show you the way, even though they have nothing to gain from it.