Trolling

"Personally, I like the idea of heroism, of what makes a hero. I totally get you Joe because it's true. Moralistically, for a character to be a villain, they've got to have a reason, a definition to their form. Heroes? It's easy because it's the right thing to do. Villains you have to legitimize, give depth to their struggle, otherwise they're shallow, facile at best.

But

Heroes for me aren't necessarily about the characters themselves, it's about what it means to be a hero. They struggle against adversity, always attempting to do the right thing, even when the world is against them. Villains take the easy way out. They say fuck it and take another road rather than sticking with the right thing. That takes balls my friend."

That was the most Mali spoke outside storytelling. The only ones to realize this were Joe and Casey. Parker was musing out the window at the wide open sky, carrying in his eyes hope that his personal deity would encourage current situations and negate the past, lest it haunt his future. Gordon found himself comfortably resting, a hat hood hiding his unconscious face. None of them felt an overwhelming desire to wake him, though his food was getting cold. The particular diner they found themselves in was peculiar. Everybody knew everyone's name. It was obvious the establishment wanted to integrate them as well, given the entirety of the wait staff, 3 waitresses with an age rank Gordon declared quietly as "fresh" to "microwaved", greeted them with an introductions and pleasantries. It was off putting to the strangers present.

They decided to consume their food quickly, turning away the slices of Americana in favor of a swift withdraw, one that was delayed by a bizarre recount of a dream Gordon had awoke to. As they exited the overly zealous restaurant, a flyer found itself under the heel of Joe's shoe. It contained a rather derogatory image of the President Elect with fun words like "socialism," "communism" and "Marxist" below it.

After a quick perusal of the sheet, Joe found what he was looking for. Stretched across the bottom in communist red was a paragraph detailing a story session for those who wanted to vent their frustrations at the impending administration that, in print declared "would be the downfall of western society."

Joe lifted the form, drawing attention to the storytelling portion of the event.

"Who doesn't want to hear crazies talk. It'll be amusing at the very least. We just need to remember to keep ourselves under control." Casey glared at Gordon specifically, who was still making large attempts at gaining full consciousness.

"What love, I'll keep me knickers about me"

"Damn well better. I don't want to spend the night running from a very angry Mormon mob."

The building was a local youth center, located in the heart of the city, a city which still didn't have a name as far as they were concerned. They opened the doors just as the speaker, an Asian American fellow in his mid 20's began to speak.

"Hello, Tasty Max's Pizza, what can I get for you today."

"My name is George........"

"Sikorski, we know. You've ordered pizza 37 times in the last three years. We've run a simulator on everything you've ever ordered from any outside food sources and believe you are going to order a one topping, probably pepperoni and garlic bread with 91% accuracy. Is that what you would like?

"......Yeah, could I get a two liter with that?"

"Absolutely. Your total comes to $62.98."

"What? Go over everything on the bill for me."

"Well sir, the meal is $12.95, then you have a service tax, income tax, state tax, federal tax, pizza tax delivery tax and a monetary tax: that puts your order at $40.58. National Health Insurance has advised us to charge anyone who orders red meat that also has a high cholesterol level or that has a history of heart problems. Since it's Friday, the Catholic Church has also issued a charge to any declared Catholics who eat meat on Friday during Lent, a portion of which goes to the federal government. That brings your total to $62.98.

We could offer you a healthy organic alternative. It doesn't have a particular taste and it cost the same, but it will save you some money in the next three years."

Mali didn't even want to hear the end. She was livid.