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[sagikkun]

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[sagikkun]

What a criminal.

Still, not dramatic enough for me these days. Tell me more about the radio.

[temporicide]

What would be dramatic enough?

I had this idea about what the radio could receive, but also what I could play. So I made the first one in the junkyard. The second time, I went out into the tundra. The third time, I used a different frequency, one nobody else was using, and I went out to the water to do do it. They don't understand the water. It took them months to find me. The problem was that the frequency was the one that was supposed to be used by the local police, but we didn't have police, not even village safety officers, so nobody was even using it. But they charged me with that in mind, anyway.

So I was in trouble a couple times. I couldn't help it. I don't know why.

[sagikkun]

( A lot of that doesn't quite make sense to Yohan. But he knows from talking to Roza that her frame of existence is different to his. He's just going to roll with the punches a little, tucking the information away as he does so. )

Hm.

I suppose it still counts as interference. Even if it's unused, it still might be at some point. A good lawyer should have gotten you off on a technicality.

[temporicide]

We didn't have many of those. Maybe that's why one of my brothers is in law school now.

I think they just got sick of it, because I kept doing it. The first time, when I was in the junkyard, they let me off with a warning. But have you ever had something you can't stop yourself from doing? Even if everyone around you hates it, you feel like you have to do it.

[sagikkun]

More of a deterrent?

Did it work?

[temporicide]

I don't think so. I just got into something else, and it wasn't illegal. Does it ever work, really? Nobody I knew there stopped going back.

You didn't answer the question, though. (You don't have to, it's personal. But I noticed.)

[sagikkun]

You are tenacious.

And all the time, I suppose. I do a lot of things others think I shouldn't, but that I believe I must.

[temporicide]

Sometimes tenacity feels like demonic possession, I can't lie. (Not that I've been demonically possessed. I don't think that's possible.)

Does it ever bother you? When they get upset.

[sagikkun]

No? Nobody's ever accused me of being possessed, I think perhaps because that implies a lack of accountability. Possibly it's more easily believed that I'm the demon doing the possessing.

But that sounds like a lot of work.

And no, it doesn't.

( Because obsessing over and curating a bad reputation is totally a chill and normal thing to do! )

[temporicide]

Do you want people to believe you have that power? Something demonic. Even if it's just metaphorical.

It bothers me sometimes. Maybe I should study, get better at not minding.

[sagikkun]

I don't mind using any kind of reputation to my advantage.

( Although recently there have been very specific cases where it has hurt, a little. He's learning that. )

How do people perceive you, then? That it bothers you?

[temporicide]

Kind of depends on the perspective, I guess. But yeah. Some of it I've earned. Some of it I didn't.

The stuff you don't earn is harder to weaponize, right? Or at least I think so.

[sagikkun]

Ah, not really, in my case.

The things people believe on me are usually based on hearsay, rumours, nothing actually real. It used to be startling how easily people allowed themselves nudged into a stance without anything concrete to stand on. Now I just use it.

[temporicide]

I want to know how to do that, too. To not let it take root.

Does it cost you anything, do you think?

[sagikkun]

Only the cost of my eternal soul.

( Immediately after: )

Kidding. That's long gone. But I do think it takes a certain amount of distance between yourself and others. You have to learn how to separate yourself.

[temporicide]

The whole thing, huh?

But you're probably right. That's why I can't do it well. I don't have a good shell the way other people do. Everything everyone feels or thinks goes into me too easily, and then it stays there. It sticks.

[sagikkun]

Ah, I have no way of teaching you to defend against that. Only a warning that you might need to find a way to let some of it out before it subsumes you. The road to hell, good intentions, you know how it is.

[temporicide]

I know. I try to, even when there's too much. Everybody needs an outlet. You have yours, right?

But that's why the gods invented dancing! And really loud music.

[sagikkun]

Fast cars.

That's mine. Though I'm sure music and dancing is a far more acceptable route.

[temporicide]

Unless the music gets you arrested, right? But I like cars, too. They're so pragmatic where I'm from. It's all about surviving the winter. So I like when they're for fun... and going fast.

You ever get scared of crashes?

[sagikkun]

That's half the thrill.

But I'm better than that, I merely like the speed.

[temporicide]

What's your ride? I'm not the car guy in the family, but I know a little.

me frantically googling bc i am not a car guy either ahsdj

[sagikkun]

Currently? A corvette. A C7. But I have a few. Some practical, some less so.

fake it til u make it (otherwise known for me as 'copying what someone on reddit says')

[temporicide]

Now that is fast.

Have you ever flown a helicopter? I think you'd like it.

ah yes, that is where they keep the sacred texts.

[sagikkun]

I think that's a little too close to being a daredevil. And I think my niece would be jealous.