Valley of the Dolls

[MurderWeasel]

"—I mean, kid, I don't know what to tell you. You ever hear that old Kenny Rogers song? 'Every gambler knows that the secret to survivin' is knowing what to throw away and knowing what to keep.' Right now, I don't know that you know a thing—

[MurderWeasel]

"—which really shouldn't be a surprise. After all, in the absence of traditional social structures, it's only natural to recreate facsimiles thereof. You had a doubly-strong helping, in that your chosen surrogate family was, by the end of things, also pared down to a Venn diagram completely overlapping your artificially-designated alliance. In a way, you went from having everything, or everything that you could still have, to nothing, in one fell swoop—

[MurderWeasel]

"—which is just how the story's supposed to go, isn't it, Verity? Come, come, don't deny it. The secret to narrative success is struggle. Nobody wants a winner who coasted through it all, and what better way to prove your worth? Burn fast, burn bright? Verity, you're still burning. Take a breath. You may have lost some depth perception, but—

[MurderWeasel]

"—when Odin lost an eye, it was in exchange for wisdom and the ability to perceive worlds beyond ours. It's not so bad—

[MurderWeasel]

"—I mean, um, I mean, uh, okay, not gonna lie to you, it actually is looking pretty bad from here, but, you know, I mean, what do I know? I'm not even supposed to be here, man. I won a drawing with a can of Coke. Don't ask me, because I don't know shit."

[Wham Yubeesling]

"H-

[Wham Yubeesling]

"-

[Wham Yubeesling]

"





















((Verity Stewart, continued In Another Life))