Violet's sneakers squeak annoyingly as she makes her way down the hall. The sneakers are a new pair and they haven't been broken in yet, so she's not able to move around quietly as she's used to. Her hair is chin-length now - she felt it needed a cut. But other than that, she looks just the same as usual.

Having returned from another visit to the hospital to see Dave, she's on her way to visit someone else: Taryn. She's been meaning to ever since she heard that Taryn and Keye had broken up.
Breakups are difficult and awkward and downright miserable, so Vi figures that it would be a good idea to go check up on Taryn and see how she's taking it.

Knock, knock.
"Hello? Taryn, you in there?"

"I'm here. C'mon in, Vi."

She is sprawled on her bed, drawing something. It is a very something something, and so far seems to involve a lot of messy lines and a lot of erasing, because she's not at all happy with the way it's coming out.

Jeans, t-shirt, hair in a messy bun because she cannot think with it on her neck. She's weird that way.

Violet slips inside (she never makes a big deal of her entrances) and approaches the bed.

"Ooh, what're you drawing?"
Obligatory small talk. It's her way - never jump into anything, even conversation, without sufficent preparation. The target has to be aproached carefully.

"I have no idea. I think it was supposed to be a character of mine, but it went funky, so now I don't know."

Shrug. She puts the sketchpad aside and looks up at Vi.

"What's up?"

"The usual. Class,..um,.. other stuff. You know. " She shrugs. "Same old things."

Technically, 'a goddess is toying with my boyfriend' is nothing new, and so isn't out of the ordinary.

"How're you doing?"

"I'm all right. Are you okay? I heard about Dave. Is he going to be getting out of the hospital any time soon, do you know?"

Worried about her friend, who is in turn worried for her.

Isn't life funny sometimes?

"Uh-" Violet's momentarily surprised to find out that Taryn knows about that, but recovers quickly. "No, I don't know when yet. He'll be okay, though,... nothing vital got hit, thank goodness."

She nervously tucks some loose strands of hair behind her ear.

"...I heard you and Keye broke up," she says hesitantly, unsure of the degree of sensitivity of the subject at this point.

By this time, it's getting to be a sensitively annoying topic.

So this is what it's like to have friends?

"Yes, we broke up. You know him, Vi. It got too draining trying to keep him sane and me too. That's all."

Sigh.

"Okay, okay... yeah, I know. I just thought I'd ask," she says apologetically, "I was worried."

...

"Have you seen him since?"

"... no. I'm not sure why. I'm not avoiding him, or anything." Sigh, shrug.

"Have you?"

"Yeah."

She smiles faintly.

"That's how I found out you two had broken up. He told me."

"Oh. Is he okay?"

She seems to recall his telling her that he wasn't going to kill himself, but she worries anyway.

Keye is... a bit unpredictable.

"He was upset - no surprise there - but he seemed to be taking it pretty well."

Violet gives an earnest sort of smile, not tentative in the least.

"He'll be fine."

"Not suicidal, then. Good, I worried about that."

Given that before, he's been suicidal at the drop of a hat--metaphorically speaking--it wasn't an unreasonable worry.

"Well, there haven't been any goodbye phone messages yet, so I guess not," Vi says mildly. "...Anyway, I sorta came by just to see how you were,... I have a paper I'd better get back to."

The prospect doesn't seem to be very attractive, judging by the wry look on her face.

"See you later?"

"I guess so... Only, hey, how are you holding up? With Dave in the hospital, I mean? Wick wasn't very clear on what exactly happened..."

Also, she is in no hurry to get back to not-drawing Treon.

"Wick? Oh, so he's how you found out. Um,..." Vi shrugs a shoulder, and tries to bite on her thumbnail - then realizes there isn't anything left to bite, and tucks her hands into her pockets. "I'm okay, I guess. I panicked a bit at first, but now I know he's going to be okay, so I'm not so worried. Just a bit sad."

She pauses, and frowns.

"...and kind of angry, because there's probably nothing I can do to keep it from happening again."

"... how did it happen, anyway? Also, why can't you do anything about it?"

Except that she can't lock Dave up and keep him from going anywhere dangerous, or any such thing.

"Lady Luck - the real one - made him play this game where you take turns pointing a gun at each other, only neither one knows in which, what d'you call it, chamber? the bullet is in."

Violet smirks bitterly.

"You can guess who lost." She shakes her head. "I can't do anything against a goddess."

Shiver!

"No. No... I guess not. I'll cross my fingers and hope it doesn't happen again, and if there's anything I can do to help, I will, but I have no idea what that might be." Pause. "I dunno anyone who's likely to be able to do any more, either."

"Heh. Yeah. This era is seriously devoid of god-defying people. In books, they're all over the place. But real life isn't books."

Pause.

"Keye beat her in a game of chess once," she remarks, as the thought occurs to her, "...But she wouldn't fall for the same trick twice, and anyway, I'm no good at chess..."

"Heh. I'm okay, but my dad is intensely better, and I never played Keye, but he's probably better than I am too. Anyway... you're probably right."

Pause.

"I guess... you could try appeasing her with... something? What would a goddess like that like?"

"I don't know..." Vi sighs irritably. "What could a goddess possibly want? ...Worship? I bet she has plenty of that. People wearing lucky socks... playing bingo... driving themselves to bankruptcy in casinos..."

She slides to the floor, glaring at the wall across from her as if it has done her a great personal wrong.

"...Dave said she went to him because she was bored. Maybe a distraction..."

"... I wouldn't recommend trying to make yourself a distraction for a goddess. It just seems to be bad policy."

She wouldn't ever want to meet a deity again, having met one. It was not high on her list of experiences to repeat, right up there with 'walking alone in the dark' and 'dating.'

... um. Yes. She's decided that she wants to be single for a while.

This earns a grin.

"I didn't mean me,... just a distraction in general. Like shouting, 'Hey, look, a UFO!' then running the other way. Heck, I don't know. I just wish there was a way to keep her away."

"I have no idea. Maybe there'd be something interesting in Jacobson's? We could check it out, see what we can find."

Aside from the dust, of course, and the useless books of occult knowledge that contradict each other.

"Hey, yeah, there's an idea. I'll just chuck a book at her," Violet kids, "That's a good idea, though. Really. It's worth a try,... never know what you might find there. It might have some sort of obscure book on how to repel luck goddesses..."

"But let's try not to repel luck in general, huh? I mean, luck's kind of a useful thing to have, if it's good."

... would throwing a book at the goddess even help, or would it just make an already messy situation messier?

Possibly both. All things considered.

Messier. Definitely messier.

"She's good and bad though... I guess my best bet is to somehow get myself into her good graces or something. Make a sacrifice to her or whatever, and ask her to not hurt Dave anymore... I'd rather have neutral luck, if that's even possible..."

"You mean, not horribly bad or terrifically good, just average, normal person luck? Yeah. Terrifically good luck has the annoying habit of switching to the opposite extreme without warning."

Pause.

"What could you sacrifice to her, though?"