11-06-2019, 03:49 PM
He was shit at the show-offy irony thing; that forehead quip had the same toddling ungainliness as a bad liar trying out a lie — which Near, bad liar and practiced ironicist that he was, recognized intimately. The eye roll was a nice touch, thirteen year-old talking to Mom-style, just in case my sarcastic voice wasn’t enough to prove I was being sarcastic. The thing was, if the statement had come with just a hint more gravitas, Near wouldn’t have put the possibility of a full-out Carnac performance past him, phone to brow and then ... what?
“How would that work, exactly?” he asked.
Because the bit that followed, that wasn’t ironic. The kid really did think he could suss out some meaning, or at least intention, from Courtland’s nonsense, but it seemed to Near that doing so would either require either a few rounds of Googling or a consultation with the source himself. The former could be accomplished easily enough without mystical intervention (unless Jude could turn himself into a cell tower; that would actually be helpful); if the latter were a possibility, if he could commune with his old friend Mr. Farr, then why the hell hadn’t he done it already?
“Just hypothetically, I mean — don’t want to bother ‘Them.’” He was still questioning whether “Them” turning up might not be a development in his favor.
“How would that work, exactly?” he asked.
Because the bit that followed, that wasn’t ironic. The kid really did think he could suss out some meaning, or at least intention, from Courtland’s nonsense, but it seemed to Near that doing so would either require either a few rounds of Googling or a consultation with the source himself. The former could be accomplished easily enough without mystical intervention (unless Jude could turn himself into a cell tower; that would actually be helpful); if the latter were a possibility, if he could commune with his old friend Mr. Farr, then why the hell hadn’t he done it already?
“Just hypothetically, I mean — don’t want to bother ‘Them.’” He was still questioning whether “Them” turning up might not be a development in his favor.