Friendship is Magic

Mr.Face:

I chuckled at that. Less ellipses indeed. "I do believe that it would take a substansial amount of work to generate as many ellipsis in one sentence as Mr. Namechov. " I concurred. "Especially if he's running late." I sat down on a sofa. I couldn't remember where I'd purchased it from, because it had been in the same place for thirty some odd years. It was exceptionally minimalist, all cold lines and sharp angles. Very easy to see clearly.

"And, since you asked, you are currently sitting in my living room." I replied.

Cricket

Once again, it took me a small while to find where exactly I was supposed to sit. Eventually I felt something reach my fingertips, explored that a bit more, and found that I'd discovered the end of some couch. I sat, curling a knee under me. "Ah." Living room. That walk had been quite a bit of work to find a living room. "...So, ah. When'd you pick up piano, any'ow? Mus 'ave taken quite a bit of practice through th' years." I paused. "Wait a moment. If you don't mind me asking, 'ow old are you, any'ow?"

Mr. Face:

"I picked up piano as an actual hobby in my twenties...something of a serendipitous programming accident. There were, I realised, two different kinds of keyboard and hadn't been aware that I needed to make the distinction. Therefore... I got a piano keyboard... which...initially I was furious at. Messed with it one evening while the people next door were having some kind of get together and making a horrible noise. The sound quality on that thing was awful. So... some years later I invested in the grand piano...once I had the space for it." I explained briefly.


"And to answer your second question, I am seventy." I decided to ignore the fact that he had his feet on the furniture for the moment. ...I'd mention it if there was a lull in the conversation.

Cricket

I had something in response to the piano topic, but that was suddenly forgotten. "...Waitpardonwhat. Seventy?" Had I heard that right? "You sure? I mean, I honestly thought I'd been exaggerating when I said five or six times my life span, mate...that's a truly long time. Can people even live that long? I've seen people who are fourty or so, but seventy?"

Mr. Face:

...was I sure of my age. Really? " Yes, I'm quite sure." I stated. "And, yes, people can live that long. People simply tend to get themselves killed before that." I explained.

Cricket

"Aye? But oi my my that's old. I knew you were old but I didn't guess that old, but come t' think of, I 'aven't a clue what my guess was in th' first place. I suppose it's different when you guess based on th' words 'old' and 'older' rather than tacking a number on it. Oi my my." I still wasn't fully convinced that people could live that long. I thought I was getting old in the sense that I thought I'd be dead by now, which, technically, I would be save the respawn powers. Twenty was a good life. Thirty was a good long life. Fourty was downright lucky. Anything above that was never considered. Well ... I felt pretty young right about then.

Mr. Face:

"What if anything are you implying?" I asked. I wasn't sure if I should be offended or what by that statement. I may have been old but... I never really thought of it. Immortality would make the numbers game obselete.

Cricket

"That you're very old," I said simply. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but it was strange. "And that's about it, actually. You're old. I don't see 'old' too often, is all. People tend t' get themselves killed, as you've said, I suppose. I thought I'd be dead by now as a matter o' fact, so in that sense I could call myself old due t' th' fact that I've been around longer than I thought, but then I'm not sure it counts since I've technically died several times over a'ready. So, aye."

Mr.Face:

"Old? You? That's amusing. How old are you? Clearly beyond twelve...but, I would hazard a guess that it's not by much." I stated. "And if it weren't for the principle of respawn, you would be very dead by now.You're absolutely right." I concurred. He wasn't terribly old at all. At least... based on my estimation through height and behaviour.

Cricket

"Fourteen. I think. May be fifteen by now, but I'm not quite sure." I shrugged. It was old to me. In a sense. Always figured I'd die young, and I was older than the specific young I thought I'd die young in, so I was older, so I could be old. "I actually don't know when my birthday is and th' age I was when I could start counting myself t' keep track is a bit muddled, but fourteen's my best guess."

Mr.Face:

"Ah. I understand that approximation. I do a similar thing. " I wasn't about to expound on that in any way due to it's proximity to subjects that I'd rather avoid. I put an arm on my armrest out of lack of anything better to do with my hand at the moment.

Cricket

"Aye, see? You don't know you're seventy. You could be sixty-nine." I nodded matter-of-factly.

Mr.Face:

"I'm not that uncertain in my approximations. It's actually only likely off by a few days. Which... isn't enough to say that I could be sixty nine." I stated. It really wasn't that far off, since you figure that I couldn't have been in that position terribly long without having starved.

Cricket

"Ah. For me it's more like a matter of a few months. Give or take a year, I'm not sure . . . my papa swore I was seven last time I remember, but looking back 'e probably 'ad quite a bit more important things t' worry about than 'is kid's birthday. And as said, things were muddled. Fourteen. Sticking with it. Once you get older give or a take a year and it doesn't even matter any'ow." I propped an elbow on an armrest and propped my chin on that.

Mr.Face:

"Your thoughts on the matter seem to make sense. And in years it's probably best to round down anyway, considering the whole matter." I concurred.

...His foot was still on my sofa. I was kind of itching to say something about it, but at the same time was conflicted as to whether or not that would voyage into atypical behaviour.

Cricket

"That's what I figured. I don't quite feel fifteen, any'ow. Or thirteen."

It was getting tiresome sitting like that. I pulled a knee to my chest, wondering how Mr. Face could sit so stiffly all the time.

Mr.Face:

...Alright that was the end of my ability to be polite about that particular matter. "Your feet are on my sofa. There is no reason for such an occurrence. Remedy that immediately." I stated.

It only occurred to me about fifteen seconds later that I could have possibly phrased it a bit less... threateningly... but, by that point it would have been stupid to try to rectify the tone. I just sat there, and waited for compliance.

Cricket

"Reason being that I 'ave no clue whatsoever 'ow anyone can sit like this all th' time." I demonstrated 'this' be swinging my legs out in front of me and letting them drop at that perfectly square angle that apparently they're supposed to be in when sitting. "...It only works for about two minutes and then it's...what's th' word. Meh."

Mr.Face:

"That would be called exhibiting self control." I stated. "It's a skill. Another thing to work on."

Cricket

Self control seemed a bit boring and pointless for my tastes. " 'ey, 'ow about we stick with one thing t' work on at a time, hm?"

Mr.Face:

"Fair enough, I suppouse. Still though... please try to be considerate of the furniture." I requested.

It seemed we'd reached another lull in the conversation. "...And we're out of things to discuss again." I stated.

Cricket

"Well, see . . . I've got a whole monologue on th' tip of my tongue about 'ow th' furniture really shouldn't care whether it's got feet on it or someone's ass, but you might not be all too terribly amused. So, ah." I tried to pull a topic off the top of my head. The first thing on my head: the echolocation type thing. Which, admittedly . . . I'd been itching to ask more about that for some time.

It took a long moment of hesitation. "Teach me 'ow t' go about your what-you-may-call-it echolocation type thing?" It was a quick and sheepish suggestion.

Mr.Face:

...Teach? Could I actually teach anything? Did I have an ability to do that? ...Well, I taught people how to rip out people's spines for work downstairs...so, this couldn't be that much different than that could it? Only without the ever looming threat of imminent death.

...Could teaching still be done without the threat of imminent death?

"I could attempt that if you'd like. Though...I will warn you that most instruction that I give comes along with a "progress or I'll kill you" type deal affixed to it. I can try to modify that...however I don't know to what extent that will be something that you would be willing to tolerate." I offered.

Cricket

"Ah. Well, that's lovely . . . but what else did I expect?" I paused. This had to be an adventure. I hoped I wasn't putting myself too far over the cliff of a very fine line between attempted-friendship-death-immunity and you're-dead. But then, curiousity. It would be interesting knowing how to do that . . . thing. It wasn't something I'd just suggested on a whim due to lack of anything better to do.

Well, alright. I didn't have anything better to do. But that's beside the point.

"Thanks for th' warning, mate, and aye! I think I can 'andle it, thanks. I'd appreciate not dying, but ah . . . I'll keep that precaution in mind."

Mr.Face:

"Alright. Glad to know that you consider yourself sufficiently warned." I stated, content that he knew the risks of this going into it. "I now invite you to stop looking at anything. Not that there probably is much to look at. Do whatever is necessary to completely stop using your eyes. Pretend someone ripped them out with a tuning fork if you have to." ...Alright I probably could have left that out...but... It was just so neatly sitting there. I had to take it. "We'll move on from there once you say something to the effect of: yes I did that." I stated.