 |
|||||||||||||
 |
|
 |
|||||||||||
 |
 |
||||||||||||
They met in a coffee shop, where Verduga ordered her coffee black. He ordered a cheese danish and a drink with a name so long that Verduga didn't feel like she could be bothered to remember it. She had only agreed to meet him because Tarot said that they would get along great, which sounded suspiciously like a blind date to Verduga. Although considering the man sitting across from her, any sort of dating whatsoever was far from her mind. It wasn't that he didn't have an attractive body. In fact, she found it somewhat disturbing how attractive he was. The odd thing was that he wasn't even her type, with his lithe, elven body and smooth features. She had never liked guys with big eyes, much preferring her men to have the shifty look that only came eyes that had seen a little too much of the world. She wondered if it was narcissistic to like men with the same eyes as you, then she shook it off, looking into her cup of black liquid. “So, you're an apocalypse fairy.” Verduga asked, her voice containing no hint of curiousity. “What's that like?” “Exhausting,” The apocalypse fairy, whose name was Sid, said. “Seriously, its a pain in the ass.” “Really?” Now Verduga was curious. “But how can that be? Do apocalypses happen often?” “All the time!” Sid said, his voice excited. “You have no idea how common apocalypses really are. I mean, all it means is a great cataclysm or doom, and humans have been causing those for years. I spend a lot of time in the rainforest these days, when species go extinct.” “Oh, so these aren't human apocalypses.” Verduga looked back into her coffee, losing interest. Then she thought about that, and wondered what hanging out with all these strange creatures was doing to her, when the fact he didn't preside over human apocalypses very often became a disappointing thought. “Not really. But I get a good one every two or three years. Genocides are world shifting events you know.” He leaned back, taking a bite from his danish and a sip from his multisyllabic coffee. “And so were Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the holocaust, and Stalin's purges-” Sid trailed off, and as Verduga thought about what he had said. “Man, we've been busy.” She quipped. “Humans cause all sorts of problems, don't we.” “I don't mind so much,” Sid replied with a shrug, “it keeps me busy, and it's important to have a job you like.” Verduga tried not to think about that too much. She had met some weird creatures in the past few months, but even gods were very rarely lackadaisical about death on this scale. Most minor deities loved live as much as humans did, moreso when they were the type of being that stayed plugged in and connected with the world at large. The deities that were red in tooth and claw rarely cared about death on a small scale, particularly when it went to serve a larger purpose. But they didn't like purposeless mass slaughter, which seemed to be Sid's specialty. “But you know,” Sid continued, “you guys have really picked it up in the last hundred years or so. Two World Wars? What was that about? I don't get overtime you know. And what was with that holocaust thing during the last one? Even I got nauseous.” He finished the danish as Verduga took another sip from her coffee cup. She couldn't take her eyes away from his teeth for some reason. He was courteous enough to keep his mouth shut, but there was something hypnotic about the way he chewed. She shook her head, and decided right then and there that she had been living alone with her cats for too long. When the apocalypse fairy started to look like good dating prospects, she felt there couldn't have been a larger neon sign shouting “desperate” in front of her eyes. The trick, she told herself, examining Sid as she took another sip, is to make sure that sign doesn't get posted over my head. I really don't want nay of the strange creatures that have started showing up in my life to think of me as a prospect. Mmmmm, except maybe Freyr. She thought. Then she shook the thought off, wondering what had come over her as she banished thoughts of magic dancing swords from her head. However, she wasn't finding Sid the apocalypse fairy to be interesting, beyond his complete and utter lack of tact. And she realized that, considering the fact Tarot had introduced them, there was nothing surprising about that. She wondered for a moment why she even kept Tarot in her life, considering the kitsune brought her nothing but grief, and the she realized that it wasn't even really her choice. The kitsune simply would not go away. When I get home,Verduga vowed, ignoring Sid's current rant, I am going to have a long talk with that fox. Verduga considered. And if she forgot to feed my cat again, she vowed, I'm going to get myself a a foxtail jacket. “So how about it?” Sid asked, causing Verduga's attention to snap back into focus. “Sorry?” Verduga apologized. “How about what?” “How about we blow this joint, go take in a movie.” Sid jerked his thumb towards the door. “I hear Videodrome is showing at the cheap theatre downtown. You interested.” Verduga was, but the idea of watching a movie like Videodrome with the apocalypse fairy sat at a level that was beyond unappealing. She made a show of thinking about it, then she jerked her head up, pretending that her cell phone had gone off on vibrate. She took it out, checking the display with a frown, then she looked at him. “I'll have to take a rain check.” She apologized insincerely, hoping he wouldn't pick up on it. “You know how it is these days, working hard just to live hand to mouth.” “Ah yes, I forgot.” Sid looked at her, and Verduga recoiled at the raw appraisal in that look. He was clearly, obviously judging her. “You mortals have to work for a living.” He stood up abruptly, extending his hand and catching her off guard. “Well, since you'll be busy, I better go. You never know, the next apocalypse might be your ooooooooown!” He stretched out the last word, walking backwards towards the door as he made the word waver between high and low pitches. Then he turned and left through the door to the coffee shop, leaving Verduga dazed in the aftermath of the rejection he hadn't had time to inflict on him.  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. Post a comment in response: |
| © 2002-2008. Blurty Journal. All rights reserved. |