sticksandbones | Very Important Gif

You found a video.

Yeah, of a ZIGGY STARDUST CAT!

Aladdin sane, but it is pretty cool.

Dude.

[You're going to challenge RYAN? On the DAVID BOWIE LORE?]

First of all OBVIOUSLY it's Aladdin Sane! The lightning bolt is always Aladdin Sane! But no one EVER thinks of Aladdin Sane when they see the lightning bolt look, they just see the red hair and go "oh that's still Ziggy Stardust" so like OBVIOUSLY I know that! But nobody else is going to know what I'm talking about because you and I both know they don't know the David Bowie universe like I do because literally nobody knows the David Bowie universe like I do!

Honestly I'm not even sure Bowie knows the Bowie story like I do anymore! Because he had to go and SELL OUT with Just Dance and that STUPID Rolling Stone article to promote his bad album! He lost the plot but I KNOW THE PLOT and everyone who knows the plot knows that Aladdin Sane is functionally just "Ziggy goes to America". Of course no one's going to remember him because he doesn't have the deep world building that Ziggy Stardust had.

I mean that's not to say he DIDN'T have a story behind him but it was a lot more subtle so of course it wasn't going to grab onto the masses the way Ziggy did. Ziggy is an icon and unfortunately Aladdin Sane just isn't, man. Not unless you know how the live shows were where Bowie got out the Aladdin Sane masks and read all the stuff on how the lightning bolt's about how his mind was totally split anyway. And those are all good thoughts but they didn't land so now Ziggy Stardust gets stuck being the lightning bolt on the face guy! Sometimes you have to be a little wrong for people to get the joke and sometimes Aladdin Sane gets overlooked for fucking JUST DANCE!

He could've kept going with Aladdin Sane and let the poor guy actually shine but noooo he had to spiral out and sell out and act like his GREATEST WORKS were just garbage and JUST DANCE is the real deal? Seriously?!

[Then, in a complete tonal whiplash:]

wow you can write super fast on these when you're just tapping buttons

look there's little mad faces too

😠😠😠

[If this were in person there would be so many directions he could take this in. There is so much he wants to respond to.

There's just one problem with that now.]

How do you write that fast. It takes forever. If you hold the letters down too long then it makes you use diacritics and you have to erase it to try again.

Edited 2025-04-02 03:24 (UTC)

Easy! You don't hold the letters down too long! You just boop boop boop boop really quick!

😉

I can't do it quick. It's too small. Can you show me how to write like you do please. Its nice that it fixes some of it, but it's not as easy as a typewriter.

[Aw, the sincereness gets him. That's enough reason to stop picking on him. It's hard for Min to admit he's bad at something in public, after all. The David Bowie rant is forgotten, for the moment.]

Sure! I can totally show you. I'll swing back and you can watch me? Would that be easier?

oh while you're waiting though if you want something easy, the faces are all under that button with the smiley face on it. There's all kinds of stuff there, not all of them are even faces!

🎸🎹

[It's that, stop replying, or keep pushing through his confusion miserably. None of those options are ones that make him happy, but at least this way he might be able use the phones without completely embarrassing himself.

This is at least an option that will make his life easier, and even if he doesn't love it of course Ryan is nice about it.]

👍

[It takes a while for him to reply again. There are so many pictures and you can bet he's looked through all of them.]

⚡️ 🌕

Edited 2025-04-02 10:57 (UTC)

👍

[That's all Min gets before Ryan's sticking his Neo Netbook in the pocket of his sick new moto jacket and rushing back to the apartment they're sharing. Neither of them really saw the need for Ryan to have his own place, especially since they were already sharing a room at the Inn to begin with.

It's only about fifteen minutes before Ryan and Min-Gi are on their couch, side-by-side so Min can really see how he's holding it - with his fingers cupped around the back and his thumbs hovering over the screen. Sick jacket has been abandoned on a nearby chair, and he has an entirely new outfit underneath. ~~Don't think about how many credits he's spent already in the last twenty-four hours.~~]

So, I don't know if this is the "right" way exactly, but it's been working for me? That way your other fingers don't get in the way when you're like boop boop boop.

[And he boop boop boops, tapping the screen with his thumbs like he grew up with a future phone.]

Boop Boop Boop! 🤖

[Min-Gi manages not to comment on Ryan's spending. Mostly because new clothes actually are a good idea even if he can't quite hide his concern at how much the jacket might have cost him. It's fine. They'll be fine. They'll find ways of making money if they have to.

He watches Ryan, still confused as to how he can be so quick and slightly dubious that's really the most efficient method. It's not as though he can deny that Ryan's having an easier time than he is though, so he only put up minimal argument.]

My fingers aren't getting in the way.

[He's actually pretty sure that his thumbs are more likely to get in the way of each other the way Ryan's doing it, but fine. He'll try it. It takes him longer than Ryan. He's still gripping it in a way that makes it look like he expects something disastrous to happen if he does something wrong, but it's an improvement. It doesn't take him anywhere near as long to type something out as it has been by holding the phone in one hand and picking each letter with a single finger. He also finds his thumbs linger less than his finger did and he has to correct any stay accented letters that appear less frequently.]

This still feels distinguishable from magic.

[Min doesn't actually send the message, erasing it almost immediately to avoid it ending up out there for everyone.]

I guess that's quicker. How did you even figure it out?

[Ryan watches, smiling when he notices the little improvements here and there. It would be nice if he had more of an answer for Min-Gi about his methods or how he figured it out, but the only thing he has is a humble little shrug.]

Oh, you know. Just played around with it and tried stuff until it did things.

[He has no idea how else to explain his process. He really did just poke it and try using it different ways until it all started to click.]

You weren't worried about sending something you didn't mean to?

[Min's not sure why he's surprised. He knows Ryan. He knows the kind of person he is. It's still hard to understand how he can feel so comfortable just doing things with something neither of them have seen before.]

[Ryan tilts his head at him.]

...No? Not any more than the regular netbook. Like, you could probably try and erase stuff or cross it out but it's still in there after you write it.

[Wait. Maybe that was the wrong thing to say if Min-Gi wasn't worried about the regular netbooks.]

But like, I don't even know what I'd send by accident. Except there's this one guy who can't see Aladdin Sane Cat right? But I dunno, that might be more of a him problem.

[In a month, when they get back to the grove, Ryan will look back on his messages and laugh.]

Yeah. I guess that's true.

[It's not something he's considered before, and Ryan can probably see the moment of disquiet as he thinks about it. Ultimately, though, it's not the same thing. Min-Gi knows how to use a pen. A phone like this? It's cool, but it's not something he's had any kind of experience with and he knows it shows.

On the plus side Ryan's conversation with Fern is pretty solid proof that Min's not the only one who struggles with these things. At least as long as he remains unaware that the netbooks are functioning just as they always have back in the Grove. It makes him feel a little better even if he's aware it probably shouldn't.]

I think that's a him problem. It plays just fine.

Right? Super weird. I...don't think I'm going to be able to explain it to him.

[He's not super worried about it. More often than not, Ryan is able to let little things just go.]

--Oh! Right, I got the video things from here.

[He navigates to the button that says GIF, whatever that's supposed to mean, and it brings up a little search bar.]

Hmmm. Gimme a word, Min! Like, anything. No wrong answers.

Anything?

[That's so much freedom. Even with reassurance that there are no wrong answers Min looks very much convinced there must be. He also feels for a moment that he's forgotten every word he's ever learned.]

How about... chicken?

[They've already seen the Bowie cat. Maybe there'll be something that can stand in for their band too.]

[Ryan grins so wide. Believe it or not, he hasn't tried to search for chickens yet. With a couple quick taps of his thumbs, he has a lot of chicken videos.]

[Every single one is posted directly to the netbooks and being obnoxiously spammed back in the past frame-by-frame.]

Ha! That one's got such an attitude. [Gasp!] Min! Min, look at this one!!!

This one so knows how to party.

Edited 2025-04-14 23:51 (UTC)

[Min-Gi is looking, more than happy to let Ryan pick and choose the mini videos that grab his attention. It's much less stressful to watch Ryan having fun than try to figure it out himself. It's weird how easy he makes it look, but he's grateful that at least one of them gets it without too much effort.]

Who do you think's making them? There's so many...

[They're fun, but he's also unsure of the point of all of them. Even only looking up one thing seems to bring up an endless stream of options.]

No idea! Maybe there's like, one guy just making tons and tons and tons of moving chicken sticker videos?

[Probably not, but his impish grin says he knows that already and it's just a silly suggestion.]

They're fun though. And I mean, there's ones I don't get too? And there's probably a bunch of stuff I haven't figured out yet either. Liiiike...

[He gestures at the GIF button.]

Like, what's a. ...Jiiiiiiff? [Maybe???] Does it stand for something, or...?

[Probably not, but Min-Gi laughs anyway.]

I like them too. They're weird, but cool. Like a new form of art.

[He's not sure how much he'll end up using them himself, but they're fun to look at. Even if he's. Not totally sure what they're supposed to be for. He's going to spend so much time questioning their purpose and looking through them with no intention of sending them.

One thing he spends less time thinking of is pronunciation.]

Gif. [Hard G.] I don't know. It'd make sense for it to stand for something, but I'm not sure what. I guess the "I" would be "Image".

[There are other things they bicker over sometimes, but as soon as Ryan hears that correction he knows it must be right, especially coming from Min-"Hard G"-Gi. And even if it's not, that's what it is now. Ryan nods in solidarity, saying the silent part out loud as if he read Min's mind.]

Hard G.

[But hm. What does it stand for? Ryan thinks for a moment and then it hits him.]

--oh! How about, "Good Image Finder"?

[It's not his name, so Min wouldn't have been offended if Ryan had stuck to his guns. Something about the hard G feels correct though. It just makes more sense.

Min frowns at Ryan's suggestion. It seems like an odd acronym, but it sort of makes sense.]

Like GIF's the search, not the actual pictures? Why would they call it Good Image Finder though...?

Yeah, exactly!

[Min-Gi's got a point though. He can do better than that.]

...Great Image Finder?

[No no no HE'S GOT IT--]

Gnarly Image Finder!

[That makes Min-Gi laugh, shaking his head at his suggestions. He doesn't have anything more realistic, but whatever GIF stands for? Gnarly Image Finder is way too ridiculous.]

No way, man. That's not what it stands for.

[They both know that's what they're going to choose to believe from now on though.]

It's totally what it stands for now. Look at all these gnarly images we found!

[Min's laugh makes Ryan laugh in turn though, even when he's trying to keep it together to really sell the bit. It's infectious.]

[Min-Gi shakes his head, narrowing his eyes as he fights unsuccessfully to keep a straight face. He does try to think of something else, but at a loss for anything either more plausible or funnier he relents.]

Okay, sure. Obviously whoever invented this took one look at how gnarly these images are and decided Gnarly Image Finder was the only possible name.

Obviously! Are you really going to look me in the eye and tell me these aren't some of the gnarliest chickens you've ever seen?

[And he specifically shows Min the little cartoon chicken shaking its tailfeather again, and waggles his eyebrows.]

[Min-Gi huffs, shaking his head.]

I didn't say that. But, like... the kinds of people who make these things? They probably don't see things the way we do.

[He says, like he and Ryan are always of one mind.]

No way man, they were definitely like "Ryan and Min-Gi, members of the famous band Chicken Choice Judy, and gonna think this is SO cool, let's put TONS of gnarly chickens in it just for them."

[Even he knows that's probably not true, but he's having a blast pitching it anyway, laughing his way through the entire explanation.]

Oh, so we're famous here? I didn't realize we had that kind of staying power.

[He'll play along, but part of the fun is trying to poke holes in the narrative.]

the dancing cat's name is a lad insane? phenomenal.

Edited (i changed my mind kiera is too lazy to capitalize texts) 2025-04-02 15:32 (UTC)

Right??? You get it, you TOTALLY get it.

I guess this guy's more like Acatin Sane though! hahaha 😉

why did you draw it so many times?

[ Guess who's back in the Grove with a normal notebook!! ]

Huh? I didn't draw it I just found it. It's just a little cat guy bouncing to some beats?

Maybe it's not working or something, I'll try it again.!

Look at him go!!! 😻

it's just a bunch of the same pictures of a cat? I don't get it. are you just trying to use up pages?

[ He tries to draw the same cat. It... looks like some circles and squiggles. If you really squint you can maybe see what he was going for. ]

No? It's just the one cat bouncing? I have no idea what you're talking about but that's super weird.

[Then Fern starts drawing the cat, and it sufficiently distracts Ryan.]

Woah! I wish I could figure out how to draw on these. Don't forget the lightning bolt!!!

What? But you drew all of these. Really fast, too!

[ He is confused, but that doesn't stop him from scribbling the lightning bolt on top of the cat's face. Now it looks even less like anything recognizable. ]

I definitely didn't! They're like...weird stickers that move? I guess?

[Wow that...doesn't look like anything. How does that not look like anything? That doesn't seem possible, which means it's time for Ryan to lie.]

Perfect! :)

[ It's okay. He knows he's terrible. It's still fun! ]

Maybe the notebooks just don't like stickers.

Huh. Guess not! That's pretty weird but like, not the weirdest thing here by a LONGshot, so...probably fine?

idk, it's pretty weird that writing shows up in these notebooks at all. I think itd be weirder if stickers appeared too.

[Ryan kind of leaves it at that for a while, but then the end of the month comes, and he's flipping through the original style netbooks and finds...so many cats.]

Oh my god dude it did NOT look like this in Neo Eden hahaha I'm so sorry man.

What! man I missed it :(

[ He should probably stop trying to put stickers on his notebook now. ]

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[FOUR WEEKS LATER]

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