\u201cOh, man,\u201d says Emily.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know,\u201d says Lucy.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe looks like \u2014 like he\u2019s just going to, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah.\u201d<\/p>\n
She sees him; and for a moment she almost loves him. It\u2019s the sense of potential around him. It\u2019s the fact that he, like she, had come there. Most of all, it\u2019s the way he smiles. But she doesn\u2019t fall for him. Not then.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s dead.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe doesn\u2019t look dead,\u201d she says softly. \u201cHe looks like, wham. One of these days. He\u2019s gonna show you what for.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah.\u201d\u00a0 Lucy looks at Sid uncomfortably. She looks back at Emily. \u201cBut he won\u2019t, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s dead,\u201d Emily says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know,\u201d says the evil prophet. \u201cBut like, he\u2019s not going to be a zombie or ghost or whatever, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s deeply insensitive,\u201d Emily says, rubbing at her nose.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just worry,\u201d Lucy says. \u201cIf there are ghosts then I am possibly in trouble. Or zombies \u2014 though I guess that I could probably handle zombies with my evil prophecy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOr with hobbit-Spock-spider,\u201d Emily says.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s just being mean.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could play hobbit-Spock-spider with them,\u201d says Emily, helpfully. \u201cAnd with your amazing space skills that would probably beat all the zombies up!\u201d<\/p>\n
One, two, three<\/em> counts Lucy, in a sudden fury, and throws paper, but Emily has thrown Spock.<\/p>\n \u201cPaper dispro\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n Lucy cannot make herself say it. She cannot make herself say paper disproves Spock<\/em>, even if that is a standard, accepted move in expanded rock-paper-scissors. Even if it will let her incinerate and disprove Emily.<\/p>\n Instead she sulkily turns away.<\/p>\n \u201cI do not like you,\u201d says Lucy. \u201cBut I will fight you. That is my graciousness.\u201d<\/p>\n Her eyes are green, with only the faintest hints of wolf-white.<\/p>\n \u201cGood,\u201d says Emily. \u201cBecause I want to dance you for it. For the whole shebang. For humanity. For everything.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOK,\u201d says Lucy.<\/p>\n \u201cI win,\u201d says Emily, \u201cand you go away. And you apologize to my murdered friends.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cOK,\u201d Lucy says.<\/p>\n \u201cEven if I beat you?\u201d<\/p>\n Lucy giggles.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat would be so amazing,\u201d Lucy says. \u201cYou beating me. That would be so terrifying and so great. Because it says right here.\u201d<\/p>\n She unfurls the scroll.<\/p>\n She points at it. She points at it because it is prophesied.<\/p>\n Emily is crushed.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cRocks fall,\u201d says Lucy, \u201cyou see. Everybody dies. The end.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cOh, man,\u201d says Emily. \u201cI know,\u201d says Lucy. \u201cHe looks like \u2014 like he\u2019s just going to, you know.\u201d \u201cYeah.\u201d She sees him; and for a moment she almost loves him. It\u2019s the sense of potential around him. It\u2019s the fact that he, like she, had come there. Most of all, it\u2019s the way he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"series":[50],"class_list":["post-6912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vidars-boot-chapter-22","series-vidars-boot"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Lucy_Hat-e1385458842367.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6912"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6913,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6912\/revisions\/6913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6912"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fseries&post=6912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}