hyperactive | ic contact || deerington.

[ well. this seems entirely unfair. stiles gets a cute little fox on his card and billy gets some kind of - creepy deer demon thing. the cards don't even look like the come from the same deck, which is also kind of weird. hmm. ]

what's the difference between major and minor arcana?
besides being major or minor.
you're not gonna get sacrificed, stiles.
even if it turns out that the cards are like. targets or something, i wouldn't let it happen to you.
you're probably right that it's not a good idea to just go advertising your card to random people though, just in case they give more insight about a person than we realize.
but maybe there's more information on the internet
or the library.
we could kill two birds with one stone
pick up some self-help books and tarot for dummies.

the fox is really cute though.
mine is all
hold on.

[ and then a couple seconds later, billy sends a picture of his card, which is nowhere near as cute as stiles'. it's good artwork, just... kind of ominous in a way billy can't really pinpoint. ]

i guess it's appropriately themed?
for deerington, i mean. not me.

I'm not really sure? Major arcana are the big fancy boys with the pretty faces - magician, lovers, emperor, high priestess, all the A-listers. The minor arcana cards are like, suit cards. Swords, cups, wands. Maybe another one? Totally blanking.
But yeah, they're less individualistic. Three of cups, four of wands. That's literally all the information I've retained here. I don't even know if you use them in actual readings or if they're just there to look pretty.

[ they're probably not just there to look pretty, but again, stiles' deep dive never went down that far. kind of frustrating, at this point. for all his wikipedia reading and all the baseless, pointless trivia he's amassed over the years, of course this is something he doesn't know. why couldn't ramona have sent them an ominous treasure hunt where the clues to find things were, like, behind the scenes movie facts or trivia about bizarre medical history. he'd ace that test.

billy's offer to protect him is very sweet, and he'd love to reply, but his cursor hovers over the card he sends and he nearly jumps out of his skin. what the fuck. ]

Oh, that's a death threat. That's such a death threat.
I'm gonna get stabbed by a little fox sitting on a sword. You're gonna get vivisected for medical science.
We're screwed.
We definitely need to hit the library. In our last few hours on this earth.
... Dream-earth.

okay. stiles.
relax. it's probably not a death threat.
isn't there a death card? i feel like that'd be more of a death threat than a weird deer mage and a fox with a sword collection.
i mean we should definitely still go to the library at some point to see if we can figure out what our cards really mean, but
can we not put vivisection out into the universe, magic-man?
being tortured in the name of medical science isn't exactly my idea of a good time.

[ y'know - been there, done that. ]

The death card means change. Growth. Evolution! Not actually death.
I'd love the death card. Are you kidding me? Dude, give me the death card any day of the week and I'd be happy.
Way less threatening than a predatory animal staring into my soul and hoarding a murder weapon under its murder claws (that it could use for murder).

But okay. You're right. I'm calm. I just want to make a plan.
We'll hit the library, figure this out. The more detailed information we get about our cards, the more likely we are to understand what Ramona meant by them being representative of our roles here. After that, we can... I don't know. Panic with renewed vigor thanks to all the new information I can work into my catastrophizing.

oh.
well. that's kind of misleading, isn't it?

we're not gonna panic. alright?
especially not before we even know what's going on with these cards.
panicking isn't going to help anything until we know exactly what ramona means.

[ ... ]

we should also probably try to figure out who ramona is, too.
and mother superior?
i... assume she's a nun, but i don't know why a nun would like
threaten everyone with famine, if that's what the letter is actually implying.

Your face is kind of misleading.

[ anyway, it's fine. he's not really panicking, he's just - joking about panicking to undermine the fact that this whole situation is pretty nervewracking. he's unsettled, if nothing else, and he's dancing around saying it, but he's apprehensive to find out what his card means. he knows they've got no choice, he knows information is the best weapon he could possibly wield, but - something about that fox just gets under his skin. ]

I mean, you know what evil priests are like. There's a dozen movies and TV shows where hyper-reigious assholes use god as an excuse to commit atrocities.
"Sorry about the famine," she'll say, hoarding all the instant noodles in town for herself. "I'm just Deer God's messenger! This is just Deer God's deer-liverance." Or whatever.

Actually, shit, should we start stocking up on food? Probably not, right?
I feel like all the food is going to go rotten, or something. Become inedible, at least, if the magic water purifier is anything to go by. I don't really want dead food in my house.

deer-liverance is pretty good.
but... i guess you're not wrong. if there was ever a place for evil priests and nuns, i guess this would be it.

we should probably at least grab some non-perishables or something.
canned food, dry pasta.
if it does rot, at least it'll be sealed up and easy to toss out, and if it doesn't
or if like, the supermarket closes up for some reason instead
at least we'll have some stuff to tide us over until we have to break into the lembas.
can dry pasta even rot?

hold on, i'm gonna text logan.

Okay. I'll start stocking up. Maybe you can get a headstart at the library and I'll meet you once I've decimated literally every shelf?
Or - wait.
You're the one with a job. And money. For food. You should probably stock up on supplies. That I'll... then... steal... a portion of. For myself. No big deal.
I'll meet you at the library? Post-Logan texting.

Wait, wait.
Say hi for me.
I need you to say hi for me. And, like, prove that you did it. Screenshot the message.
And his response.

[ there's a short lull in the conversation as billy has a quick back and forth with logan, but he does as requested. ]

okay, yeah.
just text me a list of stuff you want.
logan wants me to pick some stuff up for him too while i'm out so like
don't rush at the library.

[ ... ]

wait, you're the one with a car.
actually, it's fine. i got it.

[ and, as promised. ]

> ATTACHMENT.PNG

He didn't say hi back.

[ which, you know, is mock outrageous. definitely not real ourageous. stiles isn't actually, legitimately mildly annoyed that logan didn't drop everything he was talking about to say hi back to stiles. that would be ridiculous. and not at all hurtful. smh. ]

Dude, just pick up things that look like they'd last. I trust you.
Does Logan know we're not old enough to buy him booze? You should probably tell him that if he asks.

the hi is probably implied.

and i already got that out of the way.
that was the first thing i told him we wouldn't be able to get before he even asked.
i'm kind of on the fence about the cigars tbh but.

anyway. are you allergic to anything?

I just don't know why he couldn't say hi back.
Someone says hi to you. You say hi.
This is, like, basic human interaction 101. It would've taken him two seconds to exhibit a baseline level of consideration.
If I said hi to you, you'd totally say hi back. Because you're nice, and you love me.
Don't get him any cigars.
Tell him Stiles said he's not allowed any cigars. Tell him I'm not buying him any cigars and neither are you.

[ no time for allergy talk. he's dwelling, hi. ]

yeah, but this is logan we're talking about.
he's not exactly your friendly neighborhood spider-man.

i was thinking about accidentally "forgetting" to buy them.
but i'll tell him, hold on.

Edited 2020-05-03 04:09 (UTC)

Make it very clear that this is a punishment.

i thought he was the adult between the three of us.

> ATTACHMENT.PNG

[ there's a bit of a pause here, but it's just because stiles is laughing. this is. cute. billy is endearing, as ever. ]

You're my favorite.
I'm glad we're friends.

i'm screenshotting this too.
for posterity. 💖

[ really, that heart emoji is more trouble than its worth. stiles gets a boost of adrenaline, sure, that's great, but then he's just left mildly disgusted with himself for getting so out of sorts over a fucking heart emoji. unbelievable. pressing on. ]

Okay, okay, okay. I'm gonna go to the library. Buy me some good stuff. Gummi worms. Something like that.
Should we make ourselves sick on processed sugar before all the food in Maine, like, evaporates? One last hurrah that ends in a flash flood of vomit before we're left to starve?
Ugh, wait, no. What if all the food in town is already poisoned? Maybe Ramona's warning us that we're already in danger. Maybe stocking up on supplies is a bad idea.
Ugh.
Library.
I'm going.
Bye.

[ the paranoia on this guy. ... is understandably relatable, if billy's honest, but someone has to keep a somewhat level head between the two of them. ]

i've got this, stiles.
i'll make sure everything checks out, and i'll get you gummy worms and whatever else you can think of between now and the check-out line at the supermarket.
make sure to text me about anything you find that you think might be super important.
see you in an hour. ish.

ic contact || deerington.

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