Truthplot or Dare [Dated to June 10/11]

[noonelaughed]

It's a fuckin' brilliant idea, it is.

It's not as if Chris has been planning it for long at all; it's just an idea he's come up with. Of course, the last time he went camping with his mates, Michelle's sister's car had ended up in the sea and Maxxie's stalker had shown up and had been shagging Anwar. Mostly, Chris had just been happy someone had

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[notaparker]

It's not that this is particularly bad, as dares go. I'd probably throw this at someone. Nonetheless, it is actually a little more embarrassing for me than the whole underwear thing even is. Not in an upsetting way, this is the spirit of the game, I endorse it, I just have to live it for the next few minutes.

I'm shored up by my one mouthful of wine -- I don't anticipate having more, frankly, it's not exactly me -- though, as I walk up to Eduardo. He seemed the obvious choice. I don't know the others as well, but I can't imagine many of them being as embarrassed by a girl in her underwear doing the horrible thing I'm about to as he would. In theory.

"Eduardo," I say, stopping in front of him. "So. Hi."

[pointzerothree]

Eduardo hasn't been completely oblivious to the whole Jessica having had to strip thing, but it's been a peripheral sort of awareness, something that happened and then just became the state of things. With her suddenly standing in front of him, it's a little more apparent, but aside from the strangeness inherent in talking to a girl he considers a pretty good friend of his while she's wearing very little - and thinking that it's a little mean, as far as dares go, though it could be worse - he remains mostly unfazed. He does, however, blink up at her with big, round eyes, curious and still slightly on edge from this whole exercise.

"Hello, Jessica," he says, voice even, if a little expectant. "What've you got?"

[notaparker]

Now, the way this exercise generally works, you deceive someone into clicking on the link, but since I can't do that -- and she specified with the entire routine, so I can't just slip it into conversation -- I figure I'll just launch into it in the middle of saying something else.

"Well, I just thought I'd come over, see how you're doing, since-" and here we go. Don't give myself time to think about it, that's the ticket. Just like busting out Walk the Dinosaur, same deal.

Only that was off-the-cuff with a couple of friends, this is slightly more crowded. Maybe not everyone's watching.

"-We're no strangers to love," I sing. My singing voice is not particularly impressive, but I like to think the higher pitch and such make it a little more livable than Pete's.

Like to think does not imply it's the truth, I am aware of this.

My Rick Astley dancing, however, is damned fine. I can Astley with the best of them. "You know the rules, and so - do - I. A full commitments what I'm thinking of, you wouldn't get this from any other guy.

[pointzerothree]

For a moment - a split second, and nothing more - all Eduardo can think is that Dustin would be in heaven right about now.

That moment passes, and then, before he can even really register it, he's leaning forward, forehead in one hand, laughing harder than he thinks he has in a long time. Tense as he's found tonight to be at times, it's all entirely, albeit temporarily, forgotten after a performance like that, so utterly absurd that it's absolutely amazing for it. Whoever gave Jessica that dare (he doesn't quite see whom she speaks to, being a little preoccupied with what he just saw) very well might be his new hero. Things like that, he thinks, are what this game should be about, not getting girls to make out with each other.

"Holy shit," he says, still laughing, and sits up to press his hand to his mouth instead, resting it on her shoulder a moment later. "I don't know what rickrolling is, but that, that was amazing, thank you. Truly, truly impressive."

[notaparker]

"You've never- oh my god, of course you haven't," I say, shooting him an amazed look. "It's, uh, an internet thing later on. People post a link to something, only it's not a link to what they say it is, it's... the music video to that song. As performed by me, right now. In front of people. Oh jeez."

I cover my face. I'll be all right in a second. Eduardo's reaction makes it pretty much okay, actually, that's a good laugh, I enjoy getting a good laugh out of people.

[pointzerothree]

"I've seen the video, at least," Eduardo assures her as he tries to stop laughing, other hand held up, palm out. He's pretty sure it would have been impossible to be friends with Dustin Moskovitz and not be acquainted with such gems of the Eighties as Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up," especially after Dustin dressed as him for Halloween that one time. Back then, he found it annoying as hell more often than not, especially during exam week; right now, though, he finds himself almost glad for it. After the spectacle he made earlier, the last thing he needs now is to look even worse, and that's all that his being clueless would have accomplished. "I guess I just wasn't around for it to become a thing, that's - is that really what the internet comes to? Really? Because I can't tell if that's ingenious or insane. Or both."

[notaparker]

"That is basically the internet in the future," I say, nodding a bit solemnly, behind my hand. Which I drop after a moment, calming down. I think I'm a little less red than before, and certainly less so than I turned out to be during the whole... girl-make-out-gate. "It's Rick Astley all the way down. And- oh my, you've probably never seen a lolcat. That's incredible."

[pointzerothree]

"I probably haven't, seeing as I don't even know what a lolcat is," Eduardo answers, stumbling slightly over the word. It's easy enough to figure out, at least, a clear composite of two words, "lol" and "cat," but that doesn't really provide context for what that entails. He would guess again, though, that it's something Dustin would enjoy. Most internet joke-like things tend to be.

It occurs to him a moment later that he could ask Mark about all this when they get back, catch up on all the years he missed, but no, he thinks, he doesn't need to. Comparatively speaking, it's unimportant. "So, what, there's Rick Astley, these... lolcats, and us? That sounds... bizarre."

[notaparker]

"It's a pretty weird place," I say, picking up a stick other than the one I use for marshmallows and doing my best dirt sketch of the most classic of lolcats.

I think it's not bad. I'm working with limited materials, here. From memory.

Then I write underneath, Fig. 1: Lolcat.

"Cats. Captions. People go nuts for 'em. Who knew?"

[pointzerothree]

"Why does the cat want a cheeseburger?" Eduardo asks, glancing from the drawing back up to Jessica, earnest curiosity written all over his face. The cat part, he gets (they're cute, okay), and the funny caption part, too, in theory, but if there's a joke inherent in this, it goes over his head. Maybe it's just a future thing, something one has to be there to appreciate. He kind of hopes that's the case, anyway.

[notaparker]

I stare at him. I may gape a very little.

"...I have no idea," I concede, and set to work on my next project. "Because cheeseburgers are delicious? And buckets are treasured."

This one takes a bit more work, because it's a two-parter. But both are essential to the story.

Things I did not anticipate doing tonight: sketching lolcats in the dirt while sitting in the middle of the jungle in my underwear.

[pointzerothree]

Eduardo still isn't sure he gets it, but he laughs anyway, the mere idea - plus, Jessica's drawing itself - more than enough to elicit such a reaction from him. Maybe he doesn't need to get it; maybe that's the point. Knowing what he does about the internet, he's well aware that what people find amusing often has no explanation. That's just the nature of the thing.

"Apparently they are," he says, blinking a few times. A corner of his mouth hitches up a moment later, before he can help it. "Have you considered a career in art? Because these are, they're really good."

[notaparker]

"Sorry, art world, my heart belongs to science," I say, sitting back and trying to work out what the other seminal works of the genre are. "Maybe I should contribute these to the art gallery, though. They're works of great cultural importance."

[pointzerothree]

"Absolutely," Eduardo agrees, with as solemn a nod as he can manage. "I mean, this is - this is history, right here. You'll have to recreate them, though. Or find a way to transport them like this intact."

[notaparker]

"Transport them, I think," I say, "like they're fossils or something. I don't think I could recreate the magic spark of inspiration that struck here."

Although I think I could do a better sad walrus than that. It kind of looks like a ghost, now that I keep looking at it?

Maybe I'll claim that's the message.

[pointzerothree]

"I'm not sure it would be quite the same, anyway," Eduardo concedes, head tipping to the side. "Without the... spontaneity behind it. It's all about, you know, the circumstances they were created. I'm sure we could find some way to move them."