Guidance Counselor's Office, Monday

[electrocynic]

So, last week, Electroclash had handwavily come to her office portal-lagged from a quick trip to London, and promptly slept through her office hour. But there was no need to discuss that further, because she was here today! Some more emails had gone out to random students, and Electroclash was shuffling some paperwork around, half considering actually doing something useful.

Probably not, though.

She was already starting to fold one of the papers into a plane.

[open! mod yer emails.]

Comments

[electrocynic]

Electroclash looked... mildly interested.

"Student or local wildlife?"

[myownface]

"Student," Sparkle grumbled, wrinkling his nose. "If it was just a normal badger, she probably would have been less spiteful about it."

Those things had claws. Wicked ones. And Zeela had been well aware of that fact.

[electrocynic]

That was probably not something to look amused at.

Tough. She was going to look amused anyway.

"Well, could've been worse," she said. "You could've been a badger for a month. Although I guess you'd be more likely to be a skunk..."

[myownface]

See Sparkle. See Sparkle squint. Squint, Sparkle, squint!

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

And was he allowed to remember that comment if the island ever turned him into a skunk? Because he was totally capable of holding a petty grudge, Electroclash. Seriously.

[electrocynic]

Electroclash scoffed at him, folding the paper in her hands surprisingly neatly.

"Have you looked in the mirror lately, mate?" she asked. "Clearly skunks are the punks of the animal world."

[myownface]

"... Oh."

Look, that wasn't all that skunks were known for, in Sparkle's defence.

"They're also known for smelling like really strong weed. Just making sure you weren't telling me I stink."

[electrocynic]

"If I thought you stink, I would tell you." Trust her, she would. And loudly. "I wouldn't use a metaphor. Except perhaps for elaboration."

[myownface]

"Well, good. I'd wanna know if I managed to miss the fact that I smell like pot before going out for the day."

It wasn't like he was terribly concerned if people knew he smoked, exactly.

Canadian.

[electrocynic]

Electroclash shrugged, whatever that was supposed to mean. Her new paper plane was done, and she used it to gesture at him.

"So, I suppose I should ask you whether you're doing good and some shit like that."

[myownface]

"Depends," Sparkle mused, tapping his finger lightly against the tip of the plane that he'd picked up. "How are we defining 'good,' here?"

[electrocynic]

Eectroclash tilted her head while she considered that. Only half serious, really.

"Not curled up in fetal position and crying your eyes out every night."

[myownface]

"Yeah, no, I don't have that problem," Sparkle scoffed, grinning a little. "Don't know that I can say the same for the people I hang around with. But I know I'm doing fine."

And even if he hadn't been, it wasn't like he'd go ahead and tell anyone.

[electrocynic]

Electroclash suspected as much.

"That's good enough for me," she decided. "I probably should ask you to refer your crying friends to me, but I don't really feel like it."

[myownface]

"Yeah, and I'm pretty sure they can suck it up until they get the e-mail, too," Sparkle decided with a shrug before launching the plane in his hands back toward her desk. "Haven't met anyone here on the verge of like a total breakdown, anyhow."

Okay, there had been that time that Atton was packing in a panic, but he'd been talked down from that.

[electrocynic]

Shrug. "Seems people either hide it well, or they're adaptable." A beat. "Or they're just biding their time to snap."

[myownface]

Sparkle looked thoughtful at that for a moment.

"Could be that, too. Wait until the next time the island gets screwed over by something mean and hungry, and see how many of us snap then."

He couldn't guarantee he wouldn't be one. Really, it probably depended on what the hell it was. Umbridge hadn't been so bad. Not for the likes of him, anyhow.

[electrocynic]

"I'd rather no one did," Electroclash drawled. "Sounds like a lot of work. But we might be due for another catastrophe, I feel. Lest people get lazy and, God forbid, actually fucking happy."

[myownface]

"See, there's the trick to never letting the island get the better of you," Sparkle replied, hanging on each syllable a little in answer to Electroclash's drawl. "Don't fucking let yourself get happy."

It was way harder to get hurt if you were always expecting it.

[electrocynic]

"That's not that fun, though," she pointed out idly. "Makes most things pretty bloody pointless."

[myownface]

"Maybe." Sparkle shrugged. "But you live longer."

Kind of priority, there. Sparkle would take his happiness where he could get it, of course, but contentment was for other people. People who could afford it.

[electrocynic]

Electroclash clucked her tongue. "Not necessarily," she said, as another paperwork plane got tossed into the air. "Negative thinking can shave years off your life. My mate Jenny once said she read that somewhere, I think."

Of course, it was possible she'd only said that in an effort to get Sarah to stop bitching about something.

[myownface]

"You think it's negative thinking," Sparkle ventured, "or that it has more to do with the people who can afford to think positively? Easier to think positive when you have a roof over your head and you know where your next meal is coming from. I don't know any miserable people that ever died of stress, but I met a few who froze to death."

[electrocynic]

"No one said stress kills you dead the minute you have it," Electroclash pointed out. "Quite sure it's meant to kill you relatively quicker in the long run. Freezing to death is different. Jenny would tell you there's still room for positive thinking even there."

[myownface]

"Your friend Jenny ever have to root around in the trash after the restaurants close, hoping they threw out something edible?"

Sparkle's furrowed brow said volumes about what he thought of positive thinking.

[electrocynic]

"Oh, definitely not." Sorry, Jen. "That doesn't mean she's all the way wrong."