literature

Puddle Jumping

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"Red and gold. Huh." Ask me again why I decided to invite the dirty pinko out to lunch.
"Yes, red and gold," I grumble. This is becoming more awkward than I'd like.
"Elizabeth-"
"Don't call me that; we're rivals."
"You're just angry because you don't know my real name." Co Cong smugly twirls a finger in her black locks. "Why the change of color scheme, Synergy?"
"That isn't much better."
She shrugs at me. "You asked. Demanded, really."

"Eat your salad, commie."
Co picks up her fork, then slams it back down on the table. "No. Answer my question."
"Which?"
"Red and gold?"
I have to think about the correct way to phrase this. "I've fallen under new camaraderie."
"New camaraderie." She doesn't sound too thrilled, or convinced, whichever. Maybe it's because she struggled a bit pronouncing that last part. The Viet-French accent doesn't handle English terribly well sometimes. "What sort of new camaraderie?" Oh, she's going to get her tongue tied pretty soon.

"The sort I'm not about to divulge to the likes of you."
"I could find out on my own, you know."
"But it would take you a while, otherwise you wouldn't ask. You're about as computer-literate as I am. Probably less."
She fixes her brown eyes very studiously upon mine. "I'll track you down if I have to. I bet you've got quite a bit of money stockpiled somewhere."
I lean back in my chair, irritated. "Don't talk about my money. I bought you lunch, didn't I? I'm trying to keep this civilized."
"You're not doing a very good job of it."

"Eat your salad, commie. I'm not here for an interrogation, I'm here to enjoy your company, odd as that may seem to you."
Co Cong snorts at me. "Oh, my. Well, something has got you in high spirits if you're enjoying my company. Or someone. Perhaps the new camaraderie?"
"Damned puddle-jumping red," I mutter, to her continued amusement.
"You're not hard to decipher, Syn."

We're not arguing. Honest to God, we're not. Most of our streetclothes meetings end up this way. I seem to have a nasty habit of befriending people who enjoy my companionship only when the opportunity to get on my nerves arises. Maybe it's just me.

"'Puddle-jumping' isn't even an insult. I kind of like it." Co Cong is a teleporter of sorts. I don't know the extent of her power other than what I've gathered from the Internet. Apparently she was born in the 1940's and accidentally sprayed over with an early prototype of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. I'm not going to lie; I don't know hardly anything about the Vietnam War, but Co came out of it and ever since she's been able to travel throughout space and time like an apparition or something. I got treated to stories when we first met and before she saw my true colors. Which, as of now, are red and gold. She's been to the ends of the earth. Several of them.

"Yeah, you would like it, wouldn't you?"
"Still not going to tell me about your... comrade-erie?" There. She slipped up. I smile to myself.
"No, I am not. Are you done? The dessert menu's right here."
"I don't want dessert. Thank you, though."
Thanks but no thanks, I appreciate the offer. Now hand me your trillions so I can redistribute it and spread my dirty anti-capitalist propaganda. If this relationship follows any rules, no one thought to hand me the guidebook. I order dessert for myself when the waiter comes around again.

"Synergy, I hope you understand that if you're threatening my goals, I will come after you."
"This time around, I honestly don't think I am. Really. Besides that, you don't need to bother. I'm getting enough trouble from someone else in this dimension already."
"Oho, the native Synergy! That was how I knew where you'd run off to. Dimensions start to look a little strange when there's one too many of a single person around."

I hate when she starts talking about dimensions and time traveling and all her physics-y crap. It kind of breaks the illusion that I actually might have a normal female friend to grab lunch with on a Saturday afternoon instead of just another superhero. "Yes, yes, native. She's a thorn in my side."
"At least she's doing my job for me. Which one is that? I've seen so many parallel versions of you I lose track."
"Rio."
"Oh." Well. That sounded less understanding and more disappointed than I'd hoped.
"What?"
"Well, Rio is... um... to be frank, I wouldn't expect her to be much of a challenge for you. She's not very good."
"Maybe not alone. But because of her, the rest of the League knows more about me than they should."
"That would be a problem. And your camaraderie isn't helping with this?"
"Leave my camaraderie out of it, pinko."

"Oh, I hit a nerve. May I have a bite of that?" Co asks, eying my chocolate cake. I take the spoon from her side of the table and scoop off a chunk, then hand it back to her. "Thanks."
"You should've ordered dessert."
"You should've thought before you went," she waves her arms in a dramatic gesture meant to replicate me being an idiot, "gallivanting through time. You've bitten off more than you can chew. Especially if I end up having to come after you. I'll do it. Don't think I won't."

"I know you will," I groan, shoving the last three bites of cake into my mouth at once. "I wish you'd just talk instead of lecturing me. We can't all gallivant through time whenever we feel like it."
"And that's exactly the problem. You don't know what you're messing with. Thank you for the meal, Synergy. I'll see you later." She rises from her wicker chair, all five feet and eleven inches. Co is built like a supermodel, thin and willowy. After pushing the chair neatly under the table, she gives me a short bow and heads to the ladies' room. My eyes follow her until the door closes behind her. I see a flash of black underneath the door and I know she's gone.

As I'm wandering home some ten miles on foot, I wonder vaguely whether she'll be back in time to see my plans unfold. I guess the only thing to do, when you can't leap through dimensions like puddles on a rainy day, is to wait and see.
FFFFF WHY IS IT SO HARD TO SUBMIT TEXT TO DA.

There /has/ to be an easier way to do this than putting the text in the window and having to go through and edit in all the HTML code for my italics. :iconheaddeskplz:
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StellarLunaGraphix's avatar
You could just save it as a file in Word and then upload said file...there's a certain type you have to save it as to get it to work, and I don't remember which one it is, but it's possible.