be discreet

[msmage]

It's not much later, in Isabella's room, that she asks:

"So... is Alex really a dom?"

Comments

[mrmage]

Something sad happens, and then there is a journey during which people learn important things about something or other.

[alicornucopia]

How edifying.

[mrmage]

The movie has some jokes and moments that would probably sail right past a child's head but are funnier to a more mature audience, and then the main characters solve the problems and everyone's implied to live happily ever after, however, implausible that may be.

[alicornucopia]

Hooray.

Jackson's all out of popcorn. When the movie ends he checks the time on his phone. "I better catch the next bus."

[mrmage]

"Yup. I'm gonna go check something out and then go back to school."

[alicornucopia]

"Bye."

And Jackson gets a bus and goes off to see his master.

[mrmage]

"Bye! Have fun!"

And the thing he's going to check: is the cactus museum open?

[alicornucopia]

It is closed. It closes at four thirty.

[mrmage]

Drat. He'll have to return earlier tomorrow. Oh, well. He can go catch a bus back to school.

[alicornucopia]

School has all of its usual properties.

[mrmage]

Including, amongst them, Isabella, on whose door he will knock after showering and brushing his teeth.

[eclipsi]

She's already in her pajamas. "Hi, lovely, how was the movie?"

[mrmage]

"It was really cute! It had talking animals and important life lessons."

[eclipsi]

"And what important life lessons did you learn?"

[mrmage]

"That family isn't about who's related to you but rather about who cares for you, or something." Pause. "Which, I mean, I knew already from quite extensive personal experience."

[eclipsi]

Hug pat pat.

[mrmage]

Hug!

He doesn't seem to be depressed or anything over it, just sort of matter-of-fact. "And how was your afternoon?"

[eclipsi]

"Uneventful. Lots of sorting my memory out, I think I got a good efficiency jump."

[mrmage]

"Really? What happened?"

[eclipsi]

"Mm - does it make any sense if I say I streamlined the metadata by which I call up a memory?"

[mrmage]

"Lemme parse that," he says, and thinks for a second. "You made the... associations... or whatever-it-is that's information about which memory is which more organized or easier to read or something along those lines?"

[eclipsi]

"Sort of, yeah."

[mrmage]

"What is your metadata?"

[eclipsi]

"Times, places, emotions, people who were present, subjects I was thinking about, weather, all kinds of stuff."

[mrmage]

"And what changed between before and now?"