"So, I have just died. Terrible experience, really. A bit painful; REALLY disorienting; and nobody really tells you with any confidence what to expect when you're dead, so you're hung to figure it out all by your lonesome. Me, I just hopped out of my body, took a look around for the nearest creepy abandoned building, and figured I'd settle into a lifestyle terrorizing adventurous teenagers and maybe hanging out with the living on Ouijachat.com when I can, because really, what else is there to kill the time with when you're dead?"
-Zelda Lorentz, 5:28 PM
So, yeah, am I getting it right? That's what's supposed to happen when you die?
-Zelda Lorentz, 5:28 PM
Athena DeVries exhaled a puff of air through her nose in that way one does when stumbling across something mildly funny on the internet. Her fingers tapped away at her phone screen in response:
lmao no but you're getting warmer
-Athena DeVries, 5:29 PM
drat I must not have included enough pseudoscience
-Zelda Lorentz, 5:29 PM
Athena shook her head in response. She and Zelda had something of a friendly rivalry ongoing between each other; while both were reclusive, mousy, and quite frankly weird enough to be counted among the school's goth crowd, in most other ways Zelda was Athena's opposite. Where Athena was obsessed with magic, the paranormal, and the supernatural, Zelda was a computer geek, a staunch skeptic, and generally as scientific as it was possible for a high school teen to be. Still, the pair had mostly been good-natured and respectful about their differences of faith, and were in the habit of challenging and lightly teasing each other about their beliefs. This morning, that happened to mean a slightly silly discussion about spirits and the afterlife.
Cmon Zelda I know you believe in that whole transhumanist thing where you can upload your brain to a computer, right? Thats scientific, you say! And if a machine can capture a soul, why wouldn't a witch be able to?
-Athena DeVries, 5:30 PM
Thats different tho. There consciousness is understood to be an emergent phenomenon from lots of low-level data processing, like how the whole internet is 1s and 0s and stuff. Its not an ontological entity unto itself, like these SoUlS and sPiRiTs you're talkin' about.
-Zelda Lorentz, 5:31 PM
Maybe not, but still, if a hard drive can store all the stuff you need for a "soul" then why wouldn't a person's inner energies be able to?
-Athena DeVries, 5:31 PM
Well, aside from the slight problem of that not being an existing thing, I'm pretty sure you can't record data on pure energy anyway.
-Zelda Lorentz, 5:31 PM
radio
-Athena DeVries, 5:31 PM
............
-Zelda Lorentz, 5:31 PM
dammit you're right. Energy totally can store information.
-Zelda Lorentz, 5:32 PM
¬‿¬ Sounds like a point for the eldritch weirdos to me!
-Athena DeVries, 5:32 PM
Well, shit, I better start picking out creepy abandoned buildings then!
-Zelda Lorentz, 5:32 PM
Athena puffed air through her nose in that way that signified an internet laugh once again, and took a sip of coffee with a smile. Sometimes the best friends a girl can have are the ones least like herself, she mused as she waited in the cafe. As she did, though, her phone buzzed another notification. It wasn't Zelda this time, though; it was a text from her friend Zoe.
Hey, Athena, where r u rn? I'm on ur doorstep but ur mom is saying u went out.
-Zoe Gibson, 5:33 PM
I'm at Starbucks. Zelda and I were gonna meet for coffee and then go pick out campsites for that Supermoon thing this weekend
-Athena DeVries, 5:33 PM
Well, can u go somewhere more private so we can talk alone? Its kinda rly important!
-Zoe Gibson, 5:33 PM
???
-Athena DeVries, 5:33 PM
What are you on about, Zoe?
-Athena DeVries, 5:33 PM
I'd rather tell u in person, but let's just say I rly need ur magical expertise!
-Zoe Gibson, 5:34 PM
Actually, if the cafe's not too crowded and we can talk quietly, stay there and we'll meet u. Zelda should probably know 2.
-Zoe Gibson, 5:34 PM
"We?" Who's with you?
-Athena DeVries, 5:34 PM
My big bro and his friend Karyn. I'll explain everything when I get there, I promise!
-Zoe Gibson, 5:34 PM
...
-Athena DeVries, 5:34 PM
Okaaaayyyy....
-Athena DeVries, 5:34 PM
A few minutes later, Jon, Karyn, Zoe, Athena, and Zelda were all sitting around a table, in the back corner of a coffee shop. It was a queer and painfully awkward assortment of people, truth be told: Jon was the only guy, and he looked miserably like he'd seen a ghost; Karyn was tomboyish enough that she might have been mistaken for a guy, and her apprehension was similar to Jon's; Zelda, the geekiest of the goths, looked utterly confused, and eyed Karyn and Jon with the ice given to utter strangers; Athena, dressed in her usual outlandishly occult attire, regarded Karyn and Jon similarly; and the only person who somewhat knew everyone there, the mousy little goth that was Zoe, was having a very hard time finding her voice.
"So, uh..." Zoe stammered. "Our grandpa... he died, right? Except, maybe he didn't, cause the, uh, the letter was kinda... iffy about it, and stuff... But y'know, that doesn't matter, what matters is, he left this stone, right, and if you hold that stone and say wish for stuff then the stuff you wish for will happen. Usually... It doesn't always work, and we, uh, wanted to ask you how we could make it work, and, uh..."
"Let me just make this fast." Jon interrupted his sister and pulled the stone out of his pocket. "You see this? What were your names, again?"
"Zelda." "Athena." Both eyed the rock curiously.
"I wish Zelda and Athena would know the things I know about the stone and the wishes I've made with it."
