Everything Is Connected

[Alia Discordia]

Daeva tries to keep her voice down as she talks again with Riley.

"All things considered, I think lunch went pretty well," She said.

"His demeanor seemed to change once I got him out of that sh*thole he was stuck in. He didn't even care when I told him that I lost all the hot dogs. I took that as a positive sign that we made the right move."

"Although, I thought it was a bit weird when he started speaking Spanish."

Daeva paused for a second and smiled to herself.

“He must have glitched because after he ate his fifth burrito, Shamus began speaking in Spanish for about twenty minutes and kept referring to the burritos as hot dogs of the tortilla until he finally nodded off for a nap."

Daeva then launched into an exaggerated impression of Shamus speaking Spanish while doing her best to keep it down to a whisper:

"Perro caliente de la tortilla!"

"He must have said it fifty times," she said smiling, "but he kept repeating it in twenty-three different dialects. It was just weird."

Riley let the laugh come.

Riley never taught her to do impersonations. She must have gone and learned that skill on her own. She seems pretty good at it too.

She already has his mannerisms down to a T, but more impressive to him is that she chose to use her own voice to mock Shamus, instead of simply lip-syncing to a playback.

"Perro caliente de la tortilla!"
"Perro salchicha de la tortilla!"

"All right. That's enough for now," Riley said to her as he stifled his laughter. I get the idea. Do you think another hard reboot will 86 the glitch?"

"Nah. I don’t think so. Since he’s napping on standby right now, I think I have a better idea instead."

Daeva readjusts the screen on her end, and Riley watches as the camera swings over and rests its view on Shamus, comfortably taking a snooze in his chair, which is leaning against the wall on its back two legs.

From behind the camera, Daeva continues, "I read this book once on how dreaming affects the brain, and there was a chapter explaining moments people can occasionally experience as they drift off to sleep. As their brainwaves transition from the beta to the alpha, they can sometimes unexpectedly jolt back into consciousness."

“Aye, it happens to everyone sometimes,” said Riley with a nod.

(...?...)

Daeva returns into view and positions all her couch cushions on the floor by Shamus.

She stands over him and tilts her head, checking that she has the proper angle, and pauses for a quick moment to offer Shamus a quiet, pre-emptive apology. Then, she turns towards Riley, giving him a look over her shoulder.

She gave him a wink, a thumbs-up, and a misfit smile, just before kicking the chair off balance, knocking the sleeping Shamus down onto the floor.

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