it's just asinine

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” she said, a slight laugh in her voice. Although, she did feel a little proud that the puppy didn’t even react to this weird circumstance. “Sunny, other side.” She points to the spot opposite her to uncover the other dog. She hands the puppy a treat after he follows the instruction. “Sometimes people just try to touch her, so I’m a bit paranoid.”

“No! No, sorry, I should’ve said something first.” Once Sunny moved to the other side, Navi came skittering out, jumping into Aedan’s arms. “She’s really good. Most dogs freak out when Navi gets under them.”

“Yeah,” She nodded, relaxing a little, “sounds good.” Avery drank more of her coffee and chuckled, holding her hands up, “you’re right, you would never joke about the lobster shirt, I apologise.” Looking at the sheets of paper with various scribbles on them she smiled a little, bouncing her leg excitedly, “Actually, some of the pieces might be chosen to be performed, so you never know. Other than that, unless I can record all the parts separately without losing my mind, it’s unlikely it’ll see the light of day.” With a laugh she reached out to pet Navi before he scooped her up again, “it’s okay, it doesn’t matter if she messes them up a little, I can just say she’s a co writer, it can be a piece written by Avery Evans and Navi Macnessa.” She giggled and piled up the papers, careful not to knock her coffee over, “we can go now, I don’t think I could write anything else today, and it definitely wouldn’t be good.”

“Wait, really? That’s amazing! That’d be so cool, I’d love to see that. But if not...would you have to record every part yourself or could you find people to do it?” Aedan picked up the last half of his cookie, devouring it in two bites. “Don’t tell her that or she’ll let the fame go to her head. Then she’ll be asking for treats all the time and where’ll that leave us? She’ll be a diva and next thing we know she’ll have her own Instagram account and I’ll end up working for her.” Laughing, Aedan picked up Avery’s coffee so she wouldn’t knock it over, trying to keep it out of Navi’s reach. “Fair enough. I can do our regular Grubhub order, or do you want something different?” he asked as they headed back toward his apartment. One of the things Aedan loved the most was the familiarity—with so many uncertainties popping up day-to-day, at least he could count on a few things, their usual takeout orders being one of them.

Avery felt the guilt twist in her stomach, looking down at the floor as she nibbled at the cookie, she knew that it wasn’t healthy to not eat for so long but she always seemed to get so caught up in her work she couldn’t think about anything else, “Sorry.” She nodded a little, taking a sip of her coffee, bringing her eyes up to meet his again with a smile, “Chinese sounds so good. Wait, are you serious? The lobster shirt? In an hour and a half? That sounds awesome.” She at up a little straighter, leaning forwards, “yeah! It’s been…Well, it’s been going. I forget how much I hate music theory sometimes, it’s all bullshit, but working on my composition has been pretty good so far - I’m trying to write a piece for a string quartet.”

Aedan frowned at the face she made; he hadn’t meant to make her feel bad about not eating, but he did know how wrapped up she could get in her work and just wanted to look out for her. “Don’t be sorry. We’ll get food in a bit, yeah? Oh, I’m dead serious. Would I joke about the lobster shirt? I don’t joke about the lobster shirt.” He had, in fact, ordered his own version of the infamous lobster shirt online several months ago and had worn it way too often this summer. “Hey, that’s good! I mean, theory sounds like hell but how’s the string quartet piece going? Is this something that I’ll ever get to hear, or is it just for class?” Navi wriggled out of his arms, walking atop Avery’s papers to check out a bird that had landed on the ground next to the three of them. “Nuh uh, those are important,” he chided, scooping her back into his arms. “Want to go now or later?”

“Wow. Very high tech. Elon Musk is practically shaking in his boots at the sight of you,” Vivian quipped. “Intro music like you’re in a WWE match, yeah? The locals must get a kick out of that.” She shook her head curtly. “I have not. What kind of content do you make?” she asked. She wasn’t necessarily interested in YouTube, or the idea of broadcasting herself in general that way. Vivian was more contained, better off with a paintbrush and her tarot cards than a black mirror. “This is the digital age. Self promotion and all that will help. Get that… what do those famous people get? Sponsorships for fitness tea. Detox green tea.”

“More or less. Most of the time it’s just video game soundtracks, which just exposes me as a giant nerd without me having to open my mouth. But I do gaming videos! Drunk series, collabs with friends, throwbacks like Neopets and stuff like that.” Aedan was always happy to talk about his channel—it brought him a lot of joy to make his videos. “The beauty YouTubers, maybe. I’ve never had detox green tea in my life and I don’t plan to. You know what would be a great spon, though? Red Bull. Or any energy drink, really. Then again, I’d love some random but cool spons like Game Theory has. They’ve got a great thing going with Dollar Shave Club, which—not spon—actually has great razors.”

despite having been at lockwood for the whole summer, moving day was still moving day and levi had a whole bunch of new books for the next semester that he’d avoided buying until last minute. he had many regrets in life, but having forgotten to have them sent to his place rather than his po box was the biggest of them all, since they were heavy and he was against all sorts of phsyical exercise. as if it was a sign from god giving him a chance to take a breath, a dog suddenly showed up at his feet, startling him into almost dropping his books though not quite. “oh, man, don’t worry about that – i didn’t know you had a dog, how did i not know that?” he asked as he put some effort into leaning down so he could pet her head. “navi, did you say?”

“Hell yeah, dude - if that’s okay. I don’t mind, I work with dogs and cats all day, so I’m used to it,” he said as he pat Navi. Ben couldn’t wait to get a dog at some point, but unfortunately he knew that he a) couldn’t afford one and b) didn’t have the time. So, petting stranger’s and friend’s dogs would have to do. “That’s – Legend of Zelda, right? I was more of an Xbox kid growing up, so I’ve never played a Zelda game.”

“Yeah, of course! She loves when people pet her.” Navi absolutely preened under the attention, nudging her head under Ben’s hand as he patted her, tongue poking out to lick at his fingers. “Yup! Wait...you’ve never played a Legend of Zelda game? Like ever? Not even...wow.” Aedan’s jaw dropped. He’d just sort of assumed every 90s kid had some exposure to the franchise. “Oh my god. We’ve gotta change that. So like...if you didn’t play much Nintendo, what’d you play?”

“honestly? you really never know, even with people you trust,” rory said, a little more serious than the conversation really needed to be. “it’s like, a total roulette type shit, sending out nudes. it’s ridiculous.” she grinned. “you’re an expert? really! why wasn’t i aware?”

“this is true. well, it’s up to you. if you don’t wanna go the sugar baby route, at least with this guy, the gamestop i work at is hiring since all the kids who got summer jobs are going back to school,” he said with a joking smile. “did i never tell you? well, surprise! my sugar daddy is the real reason i now have soundproofing shit on my walls. he paid for all of it.”

“i know absolutely nothing about digital storytelling,” she said, putting the paper in the front of her book before going back to her spot. “what the hell is digital storytelling anyways? sounds like a fluke.”