[Video]

[lonered]

[This is new for Keith. He monitors the network, of course, too paranoid not to pay attention to everything that's going on around him, but actually posting something? It's out of his comfort zone. It's the vlog all over again.

So he looks awkward, like he can't believe he's actually doing this. But he is. He's still wearing the green apron that makes up his uniform (the Moonbucks logo just barely visible in frame), mullet tamed back into a little ponytail. He's got a coffee in his hands, and he's tucked himself at a table back in the far corner of the cafe he works in. He's on break.]

Is it really that bad if someone spells your name wrong on a coffee cup? I mean, the drink's right. I always get the drink right. Isn't that the important part?

[Someone has had a few complaints apparently.] It's loud and busy in here. How am I supposed to hear the difference between Bob and Bog? ...Bog could be a name. I know I've met a Bog.

[They were an alien, but that is not the point. He spreads his hands in a "see? a point!" gesture. And in this gesture he uncovers his own name written on his cup. Somehow he's left off the "h" and and scrawled the "t" in such a way that it looks more like a "f" and anyway, he's currently drinking a coffee that belongs to "Keif."

This problem goes deep.

Anyway.]

Sometimes I think this job isn't a great fit. Also I'm pretty sure I'm going to smell like pumpkin spice for the rest of my life. There's not even any pumpkin in it.

[Keith's having that kind of day.

Anyone who wants to catch him in person at work, feel free to find him brooding into his coffee on his break. And feel free to have been personally victimized by Keith's inability to get names right on coffee orders.]

Comments

[justaddh2o]

Maybe that's why the government here shipped me off to Jeopardy. I do miss living coastal, though. I'm from Gold Coast, Australia and when I was home, I was a quick walk from the ocean. Being this landlocked is uncomfortable for a mermaid, as I'm sure you can imagine.

[lonered]

Wow yeah, that's a pretty big change. Thinking about moving? There's Heropa. That's a Porter city. Florida's closer to the water anywhere in the state than Nevada is.

[Because a mermaid probably does want to be able to get to the ocean, right?]

[justaddh2o]

Yeah, I've been considering it but I want to make sure I've another way to make money since I'll probably quit my job before doing that. I might as well go all in if I'm going to make a change like that, yeah? I've been, though. I go every Friday and then my friend and I head to the beach for evening swims.

[lonered]

Makes sense. Better to have things figured out the way you want them.

[Probably. Keith's not always the best planner, but he's getting better at it as he gets older at least.]

Is your friend a mermaid too?

[justaddh2o]

Oh, no...no, he's not. He rents scuba gear, though, so that he can go in deeper and stay under as long as me.

[lonered]

That's cool though, that you two can do that.

[Scuba gear and all.]

[justaddh2o]

I actually really like being able to show people what it's like that far down in the ocean. It's really beautiful. It's almost definitely my favourite part of being a mermaid, actually. Everyone should get to swim with dolphins at least once in their lives.

( She absolutely believes that. )

[lonered]

I bet it's incredible.

[There's a lot of the deeper oceans that's still less known than the reaches of space.]

Dolphins, huh?

[Dolphins are cool.] I'm more the run with wolves type myself. [He means that one literally given that his most constant companion these days is a large fluffy space wolf.]

[justaddh2o]

It really, really is.

( She smiles a little at that comment. It's just amusing since, once in a while, back in the beginning, the girls used to call the full moon "werewolf time" while they were learning to control their weird urges for mayhem and chaos on the full moon. )

Yeah? That's cool, too, though.

[lonered]

It is. Though, the wolf I'm talking about does more teleporting than running. Space is weird.

[But also very cool in between being absolutely horrifying.]