The Permanence of Stories

“Whatcha doin’, kid?” Austin leaned in the doorway, arms crossed over her chest.


The Wordsmith was curled up on one of the uncomfortable office chairs, hands cupped around some small black device. He looked up and blinked at her blearily, and for one moment his eyes were ink-black, and he looked dazed, as if he’d just absorbed some long, dry tome - like the federal tax code.

Kory was a lazy prat, that he’d had The Wordsmith absorb that.

“I’m watching cartoons,” The Wordsmith said. He held up the device - an iPhone. “Old-fashioned cell animation. Do you know how they did it? They would make the drawings first, and then transfer the drawings onto cellulose, hence ‘cel’ animation --”

He sounded like he was reciting from a book. Austin could see ink swirling across his collarbones - he was shirtless, poor creature, and the heater in the bunker was broken. For one moment, Austin considered triggering him, asking for a touch of poetry - in the wake of Valentine’s Day, after all - but she didn’t want to get on Garrow’s bad side.

Austin smirked. “Did Garrow give you that toy?”

“He said it was a birthday present,” The Wordsmith said.

“Wasn’t your birthday two days ago?”

“Yes.”

“And you’ve been watching cartoons on that thing since then?”

“I’ve slept a little, ate a little. Called up some maps for Garrow. Why?”

Austin knew how little The Wordsmith ate and slept; he must have been glued to that thing for hours. “Didn’t your mother tell you that too much TV will rot your brain?”

“I don’t have a mother - and if I did, she never told me anything,” The Wordsmith said easily. Anyone else would have shown a moment of remorse, of loss at not having a mother, but The Wordsmith was weird and unemotional like that.

“Too much TV is bad for you,” Austin said.

The Wordsmith smoothed a hand over his forearm where a line from a novel flickered. “Maybe. Too many books can be bad for you too. Besides, with cartoons - I can enjoy the story and forget it when it’s done. It’s not - stuck in me. Forever.”

“I never thought of that,” Austin said, after a long moment.

The Wordsmith shrugged. “I can remember everything I’ve ever read, but not everything I’ve ever seen.”

Austin hummed thoughtfully. “What cartoons did Garrow give you?”

“Disney,” The Wordsmith said. “They’re curious permutations of traditional tales --”

Austin cut him off. “Have you ever seen anything by Hayao Miyazaki?”

(416 words)