“maybe with enough practice, we can achieve owl levels of neck flexibility.” she twists her head slowly from side to side as if warming up for more physically demanding exercise. but she’s not trying to break her neck, or even pull a muscle, because few things are as frustrating to a gamer as a pinched neck nerve. ingrid gasps, her eyes lighting up. “that would be cute,” she says quietly, considering. “i’m a little worried we’ve missed the llama craze, but i think people would still buy llama stickers. or maybe a mug with a cute llama on the side.” she’d definitely give it some tri-colored hair, in the interest of realism. ingrid shifts subtly as her phone vibrates, pretending not to have insta notifications turned on for soren, but it’s basically required considering he doesn’t post nearly as often as she does. she prefers snapchat, anyway, though it’s mainly her spamming people and them occasionally sending a response. ingrid tries to have streaks with as many people as possible, so she can see all the different app-generated emoji options. it feels a lot like unlocking different achievements in a video game. “when you think about it, can we control when we pee? i’m pretty good at holding it because i hate having to leave mid-stream, but i also drink a lot of water.” and sodas and teas and coffees. “i can’t believe the llama has to pee on command while being dehydrated from salt water.” she would expect better mythological treatment, personally. “do you think they’d object to us providing the animals ourselves? i feel like all you do is hire a company and they show up. i could even sell it as a gesture of goodwill from the blackthorne family.” though, arguably, they’ve done nothing sketchy recently. her cheeks dimple with the force of her grin, reminding her why smiling is absolutely forbidden while applying blush. she briefly imagines how spotty and heavy it’d look if she didn’t make an exaggerated pouting face when doing her makeup. “yes! yes, and i’m sure i’ll spiral immediately, so one day the soon-to-be net above my bunk will collapse in the dead of night and smother me.” but that’s an ideal way to go, covered in plushies. that’s always how she imagined she’d die – or in combat, obvs. “i’m sure there’s a way…” she drifts off, the techie part of her brain immediately trying to figure out if the lights could somehow still function is separated from their main power source, and one immediately assumes that no, this is not possible. but she doesn’t want to tell soren that the things he’s fantasized about aren’t feasible, she wants to prove that they are. “i think…maybe if you covered everything but the ends in black tape, at least at night, it’d look like the ends were floating?” she’ll try to think of a better idea later. “does this look cuddly?!” she adjusts the screen for him.
they seem to be on the same wavelength, but he’s out of sync — turning his head towards her at the same time he does, too fast, like the rapidity with which he stretches is directly correlated with how fast he’ll attain the flexibility of an owl. which is already impossible to begin with, but a lot of things seem to be until ingrid talks about them, stuffed animal case in point. his head whips against hers with a sort of side clash-bump, and he’d reach up to awkwardly pet it better but one arm is comfortably squished against hers and he fears reaching over with his other hand might send the laptop toppling. ‘ sorry. ow. sorry that ow’s not for me, it’s for you. that wasn’t very wise and owl-like of me. ’ embarassed, but not too concerned about this being a needs-ice stat affair, couldn’t have been that hard since they were so close to begin with. ‘ i would definitely drink out of a llama mug. and i don’t even like hot drinks that much. ’ save for some herbal teas, all the mugs he’s collected over the years have been used as storage for pens or loose change, or just displayed on his shelf. but the llama mug would be his designated drink mug if she made one. soren just assumes the vibration from her phone is a message or a notification that has nothing to do with him, because she’s popular online and assumes she’s just as popular offline. ‘ i can hold my pee for a really long time. ’ he’s about to go on a tangent about how he has the best bladder out of anyone in his family and how the time he flew from north dakota to fargo he didn’t need the go but still went to the bathroom because he wanted to see what one on a plane looked like. but before he can, he becomes stupidly hyper-aware, that he’s talking about pee. with a girl. which seems like something he shouldn’t do, and even though he knows it’s dumb he still trails off, with a boring ‘ yeah it sucks, ’ sympathy fo the dehydrated llama. though he can’t stay weird for long when hypothetical plans are of concern. ‘ that’s a really good idea. reparations in the form of animals is always a good idea. no one can be mad at like, a foal. ’ even though it’s not a one stop fix for what blackthorne did, or so he assumes, if there was a test on their crimes he probably wouldn’t do so well. ‘ at least it wouldn’t hurt. ’ although either way, being smothered isn’t ideal, by things you love no less. another teeny smile unconsciously appears at the thought of how pretty that would like, and grows a little more at the thought of it in the daytime. ‘ it would be a bit like spider’s legs in the daytime. next year i’m gonna start on my room decorating early. ’ he likes his room the way it is now, but it took a long time to get there. he knows they’re the ones as soon as his gaze lands on the page. ‘ definitely. should we get the same colour or not ? ’
