It was the fourth cell phone that Ms. Chasey had gotten them, and this time, Iblis was going to treat it with the utmost care.
Because this time, they had a new number to put in it.
It had taken a bit of time for Iblis to figure out how to add contacts, but once they had, they were giddy as they typed in ‘Mighty’ and then carefully entered in the number that had been sloppily written on a napkin. They pressed the ‘save’ button and there it was. A new contact.
Iblis didn’t have that many because… well, they didn’t have that many friends. But they were making progress, no matter how slow it was. It was exciting to see Mighty’s name and the number beside it. They had made a new friend. A new friend that they could call whenever they wanted to.
Within reason, of course.
Though, Ms. Chasey had been telling them about another form of communication that mortals were using. Texting, it was called, and it was like sending a letter. Kind of. The god of destruction had to sit down with them and explain how it worked, but once Iblis got the hang of it, they pressed Mighty’s number and tapped ‘send message’
Well, now that /that/ was out of the way, they actually had to think of what to say to the armadillo. Maybe just a ‘hey, what’s up?’ Or was that too casual? Maybe a ‘hello, how are you?’ Iblis sat on the couch and just stared at their phone for an hour or so. What should they say? What was the perfect thing to say to a new friend?
After another hour of them sitting perfectly still, Iblis decided to just bite the bullet and send a casual but not /too/ casual ‘hey’.
Anxiously, they fidgeted on the couch for all of twenty-five seconds before their phone let out a shrill tone and vibrated in their hand. They carefully tapped on the screen and checked to see Mighty’s reply.
‘Hey! Uh, who’s this? I give my number out to a lot of people :)’
Iblis stared at the screen for a moment before they face palmed. How stupid! They had forgotten to say who it was! Mighty probably thought they were an idiot. They quickly typed out a reply and sent it.
‘It’s iblis. sorry i should’ve said that before’.
Iblis was blushing out of embarrassment at this point. What a silly mistake to make, but it was their first time texting and they were inexperienced! Maybe they should’ve just called instead. Talking came a lot easier to Iblis. They could talk for hours on end about most things.
The phone vibrated and made a sound in their claws again and Iblis hurriedly pressed the buttons on the screen so they could read Mighty’s reply.
‘OH! Hi Iblis! It’s good to hear from you. What’s up?’
Okay, this was good. Mighty wasn’t mad or annoyed with them. He wanted to know what was up!
… Nothing was up, really. Iblis’ highlight of the day was putting Mighty’s information in their new phone and learning how to text. They couldn’t say that though.
‘Nothin just watching tv’.
Well, that wasn’t a /complete/ lie. They had been watching television earlier. Iblis had just begun to stand and make their way into the kitchen when his phone vibrated again.
‘Cool, cool. I just got done with a job. Have you been watchin’ TV all day?’
Iblis began to sweat nervously at that question. They got up from the sofa and made their way into the kitchen, thinking about how to respond all the while. If they said yes, would that make them seem lazy? It was true that they enjoyed t.v. and liked to watch when they had the time. There were so many interesting shows and documentaries it was hard to turn it off sometimes.
As they returned to the living room with his mug of hot chocolate, they sat down on the sofa and took a long drink. They realized that they needed both hands to reply, so they set the mug down on the coffee table and picked up the phone carefully.
‘Yeah i watched a few documenteries and other shows’
It was around thirty minutes before Mighty replied. Since he had said he had just finished a job, Iblis could only assume that he was driving home. The firebug didn’t mind the lull in the conversation. It gave them time to think of responses to potential questions and topics of what to talk about.
‘Nature documentaries?’ Mighty replied finally.
Iblis eagerly picked up his phone and typed out a message.
‘Yeah and animal ones’, they replied.
There was another lull, but Iblis couldn’t figure out the reason behind it. Had Mighty gotten home okay? Maybe he was in the bathroom?
After about ten minutes, their phone went off twice. Iblis had finished their hot chocolate and had moved on to the mug itself now. Only the handle was left, but they quickly dropped it in favor of picking up their phone.
Mighty had sent him a picture. How? Iblis had no idea, but it was a picture of the sun shining through the branches of some large trees. It was a very pretty picture, Iblis thought. It looked like one they’d seen in a magazine or on a television commercial somewhere.
Along with the picture, Mighty had said, ‘Nature is really pretty, yeah?’
Iblis stared at the picture for a long time. They pressed on it with a claw and saved it to something called ‘My Gallery’. They weren’t sure what that meant, but they hoped it meant that they’d have it forever.
‘Yeah it really is,’ they replied.
-
For the rest of the day, Iblis was glued to their phone. They found out so much about Mighty and what was going on with him through the miracle of texting. Mephiles wasn’t at home with him, and hadn’t been for a few days. Mighty had cooked dinner and sent them a picture of it. He had even sent a picture of all the plants and fruits and vegetables that were growing in his greenhouse.
It was nice, not only learning more about Mighty but about mortals in general. How they did things and how they acted. It was all so new to Iblis and they were sure to ask as many questions as they could and ask for as many pictures as they could.
After another hour or so, Mighty sent a text saying that he had to go to bed soon. Iblis was surprised; had they really been talking that long? The time had just flown by. There were so many things they wanted to ask about, but that would have to wait.
‘Sorry i didn’t know we had been talking that long’, Iblis sent, sheepishly. Mighty had shown that he could multitask, but it must’ve been a real bother to have to carry your phone around everywhere.
Mighty replied almost instantly. ‘No need to apologize! It’s been really fun talkin’ to you. :)’
Iblis began to blush again. They held the cell phone carefully in their sweaty claws, staring down at the screen.
‘Its been fun talking to you too. goodnight mighty’, they sent.
The blushing mess of a god could only sit there on the couch and stare at the screen like a schoolgirl. They didn’t… want to stop texting Mighty. It had been /really/ fun. Every time their phone vibrated and let out that sound, they’d get really excited. They wished Mighty didn’t have to go to sleep. They wanted to stay up and talk to them throughout the night and into the morning.
Iblis’ phone vibrated twice and then did the little tone, signifying that Mighty had sent them two messages. One of them was a picture, and what a beautiful one it was. It was of the moon shining brightly in the night sky surrounded by hundreds of twinkling stars. Iblis could only stare at it in awe, wondering how Mighty had managed to capture something so beautiful.
After the firebug had saved the picture to the mysterious place that it went, they went on to see what else Mighty had sent. It was only a short and sweet message.
‘Goodnight Iblis. Sweet dreams!’
Now Iblis really was a blushing and sweating mess. They pulled their phone closer to themselves and stared at that lone message long into the night.