CHARACTER EXCHANGE PROGRAM

Visi:

"Those must be some admirable pockets then, man." I told him, waiting for him to get in the car so I could explain seatbelts. I pulled out my phone and tapped out a message to the maternal unit explaining that we'd be home in like 45 minutes depending on traffic, and then started scrolling for some music to play in the car. "What kinda tunes you like?" I asked.

Jacky:

Yup. "Sweet~ Uh, I think the pickup garage is this way..." I started off in a direction I was pretty sure was a correct direction, making sure T.Mor followed. "It'll be a couple hours drive back... we have movies and stuff though, if you want something to do?"

Cricket:

"Music? Ah, anything truly, I 'aven't really 'eard much that I don't like. Showtunes are fun if you 'ave that, but honestly anything, mate, it's your car. What do you listen to normally, any'ow?" Authors did human things like listen to music. Strange thought.

T.Mor:

"Movies?" I asked. We had a movie on our plane but it wasn't like, really good or loud or also scary things happened so I just stopped paying attention and watched out the window. "...what uh, kind of movies...?" I asked, following her through the airport so I wouldn't get superlost. That would be really bad.

Visi:

"Uhhh, german industrial, nerdcore rap... uh... I have some hipster shit and some punk rock/alternative... I have book of Mormon..." I nearly forgot to tell him about seatbelts I got so engrossed in picking some car jams. I finally settled on Johnathan Coulton for the ride back because it was catchy and mellow and angry songs in the car normally made me more road ragey. "Oh also, there's a thingy behind your shoulder you're gonna have to wrap across yourself and plug into the seat nubbin there, so we don't get arrested and so you don't fly at high speeds outta the car if we run into someone or some dipshit rearends us." I explained before hitting any music buttons.

Jacky:

"Uhh let me think, I think we have Ghostbusters.. not sure if that's too intense for you or not, and then there's Shrek 2. Oh and Milo and Otis, a story about a kitten and puppy that have adventures in the forest."

Cricket:

"Ah. ..Ahh, th' seatbelt thing, we 'ad one o' those on th' plane." I attempted to wrap the thing around me and click it in. ..It took a bit of wrestling. "..This thing's a pain."

T.Mor:

I wasn't really sure what Ghostbusters were, probably people who have to go tell the Ghosts that it's not their house. But kittens and puppies adventuring in a forest sounded a lot less questionable or possibly scary, and Shrek I only knew from gifs, I didn't know it had a whole movie I thought he was just the green guy who flew around... "Uhm the uh, Kittens and puppies are probably... the best... for uh, stuff." I responded eventually. " But I didn't know that uhm... ...Shrek was a movie...?" I added because that was surprising to me and I was interested in it even if I couldn't watch it.

Visi:

"Yeah it's annoying but otherwise you're an insurance liability and if your head goes through my windshield, I'll never forgive you." I said somewhat ominiously, trying really hard not to smile. Though that was difficult when I'd just found out my default disappointment face looked like pleasure.... ah well. I turned on the music and Code Monkey started through my iphone speakers, and then fired up my engine. Ahh the tiny car. So tiny. Such car. Wow.

Jacky:

Yeah, the kitten and puppy movie was about as safe as it gets. It's just teeny animal best friends, it's stupidly adorable. "..You didn't? It's four movies actually, the first two are the only good ones. What'd you think it was?"

Cricket:

...Ah, alright, she was making strange faces all of a sudden and I didn't know what to do about it. Something of a nervous laugh escaped me. "Heh... ah... aye, I'll make sure not t' put my skull through your windshield. Don't worry, your windshield's safety is my top priority."

T.Mor:

"...gifs about a flying green man...?" I said uncertainly. That's what Shrek was in Auda, also everyone thought he was superhot because he wasn't skinny but mostly he flew around and it was really funny... "Sometimes on the youtube and then he says a thing... ...but mostly gifs..." I added.

Visi:

"pffffft. Yeah man it would suck for the both of us. But like, I'm pretty good at the driving shit, so it should be fine." I reassured him, starting to back out of my parking space. Some douchewagon crossed behind me as I was pulling out and so I had to stop and wait. I stared him down a little out of the rearview mirror. "douchemuffins..." I grumbled, finally able to pull my car out of its parking slot.

Jacky:

"Ahhh okay, yeah I sometimes forget the whole Auda culture behind you. No he's an ogre from a movie series. It's pretty funny."

Cricket:

I raised an eyebrow at the almighty author as they muttered 'douchemuffins'. And then I cracked up just slightly. Was that allowed? ...It's just a funny insult somehow.

T.Mor:

"Oh... okay. ...uhm, I... probably can... if we read the wiki about it... maybe I can watch it later..." I said because... I mean he was very round, and round was a good thing, so probably it was okay... I didn't quite know. "But yeah, uh, Auda stuff... ...and things..."

Visi:

"Oh yeah they're gonna keep coming, Cricket, I hate driving in this state." I nodded, preparing to have to pay money at the toll booth. This whole parking and unparking thing was just super annoying.

Jacky:

"Yeah.." I paused the conversation to look around a moment and figure out where I'd gotten us lost. ...Wait no... there it was. I lead out into the garage-ish area. I think this was the right spot. "The car's just over there. You ever been in a car before?" I waited for some cars to pass so that hopefully nobody would get run over, then walked over to the temporary parking place.

Cricket:

"A'right, don't be offended if I laugh." Douchemuffin. Hehehe.

T.Mor:

"Not... really... they seem kinda..." I stopped when she stopped and it was a good thing because one of them probably would have rolled us over. "big and scary..." I said and it probably made me sound really stupid. I just... they were like as big as the roads in Auda and you could fit five people across on the road so it was... weird.

Visi:

"Nah, that's what keeps the atmosphere light." I agreed with a grin, leaning out my window to pay whatever toll it was to get out of the parking garage.

Jacky:

"Ehhh, they're not so bad. I mean, I hate driving them but today I won't be driving anyway, so. It's just a little ground airplane." I kept walking. The car was in sight now, a big blueish greyish traverse. My mom was waiting behind the wheel... I really didn't trust myself to drive through Denver.

Cricket:

..She wasn't so bad after all. I smiled and sat back in my seat. "A'right then."

T.Mor:

"That... that sorta makes sense. Ground airplanes... yeah..." For some reason that sounded kinda less scary than giant rolly things, because the airplane wasn't bad it was just kinda big and kinda bumpy at parts. "...wait if you aren't driving... ...uh... jacky... I'm sorry... I... I can't drive..." I apologized, worried she'd be expecting me to do that.

Visi:

"Yeah so uh, sit back and watch the foreign diplomats. We'll be home... well once we get past 495..." I said, pulling out of the lot and accellerating rapidly to get into the flow of traffic. I hated this shit.

Jacky:

I stifled a little laugh. "Oh, no my mom's driving, T.Mor. We can sit in the back."

T.Mor:

"Oh... okay... that... that makes sense..." I said, trying not to be surprised she had a mom but I was a little surprised and then I realized most people here probably didn't have dead parents and I kinda felt more awkward and so I just stood there. "...uhm... how do we go inside it...?" I asked, looking at the ground airplane we were walking towards.

Cricket:

And then we drove. It was.. well, chaotic, but almost exciting in that way, and then we came to a place where there were rows of houses. ...Many, many rows of houses that all looked more or less similar to each other. I wasn't quite certain how I felt about that, but nevermind how I felt, it was quite different than Luna. "..'oly 'ell, all these 'ouses look alike.."

Jacky:

"It has doors," I explained, and once we got up there I demonstrated by swinging open said door for him, which lead into the middle row.

"Is this T.Mor?" My mom had one of the silly grins she gets when she's talking to one of my friends. It'd taken a few tries for her to pronounce T.Mor's name right, but she accepted it as one of the weird internet names that all my internet friends had.

Visi:

"Yeah I know, its kinda..." I didn't quite finish that thought as I pulled my tiny blue car into our sloped driveway, hoping I didn't accidentally the shrubbery again. I wasn't terribly good at the parking. Parking wasn't me.

We had two other cars in our driveway and the small section of the street in front of our yard but not in front of the mailbox, both of which were red, so my blue car kinda stuck out.

"It's kinda creepy and I secretly want a bright blue house, but the Neighborhood Nazis wouldn't approve it." I finished the sentence, sorta, shutting off the music on my phone and shutting off the engine. It took me a minute to get outta the car and the door nearly closed itself on me because our driveway is on a hill and gravity just kinda hated me like that.

T.Mor:

I watched as Jacky opened the door and I climbed in to sit so she didn't have to like, go around to get in. It was kinda squishy, and there was a seatbelty thingy like the airplane people told me I had to use so I figured it was still necessary.

Jacky's mom said my name and I looked at her sort of awkwardly by way of the floaty mirror in the middle of the front...window... looky thingdo. "...oh... hi... uhm, yeah... T.Mor..." I said not quite sure how I should proceed to english. "Nice to uh, be in your car... today... with us..."

Cricket:

"What would they do, kick you out of your 'ouse?" A bright blue house sounded much preferable to a regular house, in my opinion. I followered lead and stepped out of the car.

Jacky:

We then proceeded with the 2 hour drive home, during which we watched a kitten and puppy run through the woods as my mom asked an occasional casual question. There wasn't much outside the window except some mountainscapes and lots of brown grass... tumbleweeds, cows, deer and antelope. I wondered if T.Mor had ever seen any of that before. Eventually, we took a turn off the highway and turned again into our long driveway, and finally, pulled into a storage-littered garage.

Visi:

"They'd get mad and not approve it and we'd have to paint it back or leave or something I'm not actually sure? But like we had to do 3 pages of paperwork the time we wanted to plant a tree, so it can't be good." I explained, slamming my door closed and hobbling on my cane up to the front porch, throwing open the screen door and unlocking the door under that.