[Voice]

[espigeonage]

[It's 11 PM on a Sunday night and Julien is bored.]

Galu, network. Random request: tell me a story.

Any story! Tell me about something that happened to you, or the other you. Or a fairytale, a joke that requires setup, something you read about in the paper, something you want to happen or really, really don't. Let me guess which one it is. I can tell you one, or a poem, or play you something from a dystopian future.

Yeah, I got the password to the other me's smartphone. It's got a lot of weird nonhuman future-music on it, and a couple of movies that haven't come out here yet. Seems like the library's got corrupted somehow, but there's still stuff there.

Comments

[allformii_ko]

...?

What do you mean?

[espigeonage]

[Julien shrugs, feathery shoulders rising and falling.]

My legs are longer and my wings are huge. I can't go anywhere now without people staring.

[allformii_ko]

[...Now wait just a minute.]

You have wings?!

[espigeonage]

There are a lot of feathers.

[allformii_ko]

Wings are different from feathers!

Were you a bird or something before?

[espigeonage]

Feathers make up wings, though.

I was normal, before. The other me, I have no idea.

[allformii_ko]

They're still different!

[Has she been talking to a bird this whole time? Hn.]

That's too weird. Even when I remember things, I was always a cat.

[espigeonage]

A wing is just an arm with feathers on.

Well, me and the guy I'm getting pulses from are two completely different people.

[allformii_ko]

How different?

[espigeonage]

Like, really different. He doesn't think the same way as I do, and he's more violent.

[allformii_ko]

Is it bad to be violent?

[espigeonage]

It can be, or it can be a good thing. But I'm not violent, and I don't want to be.

[allformii_ko]

If it can be good, then what's wrong with it?

[espigeonage]

Used without thought, it's bad. It hurts people and destroys things, even when you don't mean it to.

Violence always hurts something. There are just times when that seems to be okay.

[allformii_ko]

[Oh, she learned about this one!]

That's why you kill it quick so it doesn't hurt, right?

[espigeonage]

Uh. Yeah, I guess! [cats, man.] And why it's bad to... just bite your friends.

[allformii_ko]

Because if it hurts a lot, it's bad.

[Yup, she's totally got this one.]

[espigeonage]

...yes. Generally it's better not to hurt anyone too much.

[allformii_ko]

Did you used to hurt people a lot?

[espigeonage]

I haven't. The other me was or is more comfortable with the idea. He was comfortable with guns.

[allformii_ko]

[Oh, guns. She doesn't like those. They're too loud and scary. Accordingly, her ears flatten at the thought.]

Was he a bad guy?

[espigeonage]

I don't think so. He was good, or tried to be. But different.

[allformii_ko]

So... [Hold on, she's still trying to figure out this human morality stuff.]

He did bad things for good reasons?

[espigeonage]

I don't know enough about him, but - yeah, I think so. He was willing to be violent to protect someone.

[allformii_ko]

So it's more good than bad, right?