W.I.T.C.H. A Slice of Life

Chapter 4: Texting

Kyochi frowned while sitting at his desk, pouring over his books and notes to help him write his medical thesis. It was due in a few months and already he was stuck. He could have chosen to write about the social impact of low quality medical care in third-world countries such as those in Africa or the subject of toxic waste disposal in lakes and rivers affecting low-income communities like that in Flint, Michigan. But no. He had decided to write about how a guarantee healthcare system by the government could save as many lives as possible.

Unfortunately, such topic would required him to highlight a large amount of political aspects. While fairly knowledgable and well-versed, the depth of political intrigues wasn't Kyochi's strongest suit. That is his uncle's, the current Chancellor, realm of expertise. Even his own sister, Kimi, is more well-versed in its intricacy than him. Hence the reason why he had asked her to help by bringing him books and other materials so that he could cite for his paper.

Kyochi glanced over his shoulder to where his sister is sitting on his bed reading while donning a pair of headphones. Kyochi sighed, wondering how anyone could read while listening to loud music at the same time. The music was still loud enough that he could hear it through the muffled ends. At least she wasn't humming to it.

He turned around, trying to focus. And he could still hear the faint sound of guitar and bass playing through Kimi's headphones. Annoyed, he turned around.

"Kimi? Could you-"

Before he could finished, Kimi reached for her smartphone and lowered the volume without looking up from her book. Kyochi smiled. One good thing about having a sister who's an auraseer? She can read and sense your feelings.

Kyochi turned around and focused on reading through a detailed policy on guarantee healthcare by a senator and trying to compare it with the researched data conducted by a local university.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Kyochi looked up. His smartphone was ringing. Kyochi sighed and picked it up. It was a text message from Irma. Kyochi blinked.

Beautiful day on the pier here! You twins wanna join us for pizzas and hot dogs?

Kyochi blinked again, confused. The concept of advance technology wasn't completely foreign to him and Kimi. Lusteria may seemed like a traditional late 19th century East Asian world at first glance, but in truth, it had managed to blend both magic and advance technology enough for medical, political, and economical purposes. Taranee had described Lusteria as almost "steam-punked", whatever that meant. A few years ago before they were aware of the existence of five other Guardians, Kimi and Kyochi had been on a mission to other worlds with advance technology that far exceeds that of Earth and many others a hundred times fold. On one of them was where Kyochi rescued and brought back Silverlore, his sentient metallic dragon.

No, what puzzled Kyochi was what Irma had written in her message.

I do not currently own a pet dog that is persperating in this summer's heat. Kyochi typed and pressed send.

A few seconds later, Irma replied.

LOL No silly! A hot dog is a snack!

Kyochi's eyes widen and replied with, I do not think I wished to partake in the Earth custom of killing and consuming a dog.

A few seconds later, Irma replied by bombarding him with images of laughing and crying smilies. This seemed to confused Kyochi more as he wasn't certain what he said could warrant such a response.

"Kimi?" he asked, turning around.

"Hm?" Kimi took off her headphones.

"What are hot dogs?"

Kimi's face remained blank. "They're a common dish on this planet's country that we're currently located."

"They're not made of real dogs or any other canines, are they?"

Again, his sister's face reamained blank and emotionless. "No, the sausage is usually a viariety of other types of meat such as pork pumped into casing before being grilled or steamed and served on a long bread bun and topped with various garnishes and condiments. In other words, it's street food. Irma tried to get me to try it once. It was really salty and I hated it since."

"What about pizza? Does it have meat?"

Kimi nodded. "And a lot of fat. Trust me, Nii-san, you with your healthy consciousness, you wouldn't want to eat some of Earth's junk food. I swear, most of it is just designed to kill you with all of that deep-fried oil."

And with that, Kimi put her headphones back on and went back to her book.

Kyochi frowned. So it is still meat. Being a medical student, Kyochi strived to eat healthy and expected the same thing from his sister. It was only occasionally that he would partake in dishes that are considered too sweet, salty, or considered unhealthy. No, his problem was meat.

Kyochi returned to his phone and typed, "Irma, thank you, but I don't eat meat."

They served vegetarian style, too!

Kyochi shook his head and replied with, Irma, thank you for your invitation, but I am currently preoccupied. Perhaps next time.

Irma replied with a sad face with a tear trickling down one eye. Followed it was another reply.

Awe...I reeeeeeeaaaallllyyyyyy wanted you two to come and hang out with us! Plus, you could bring that cute pet owl of yours!

Kyochi sighed. He really needed to get back to his thesis but Irma is still pestering him. Still, he couldn't just tell her to shut up and leave him alone. At least not without sounding rude.

I'm sorry, but I gave that owl away to the animal rescue shelter.

You mean Dr. Hoot is gone?! D:

Yes.

Is it true that it turned Cornelia's hair into a rat's nest?!

Kyochi was hesitant, but he replied, Yes, but I'd rather not speak of it.

OMG! LMFAO!X10000 ;D

Kyochi blinked. This time, he was completely at a loss.

"Kimi?"

"What is it this time?" Kimi asked.

"What does O-M-G and L-M-F-A-O mean?"

The question threw Kimi off.

"Excuse me?"

Kyochi got up and sat on his bed and showed his sister his phone. "I messaged a reply to Irma's question and this is her response. Is it an acronym for something?"

Kimi took off her headphones and put her book down as she leaned in to take a closer look.

"Can you sense what Irma is trying to convey through her message?"

"I can't read her aura through the phone," Kimi said. She grabbed the phone to take a closer look at the message, scrolling back to read the previous messages in order to understand what was going on.

"Is it an insult? Have I said anything wrong?" Kyochi asked.

"No, but you are right to think that these are acronyms. The first one is short for 'Oh, my gosh, or 'oh, my god'."

Kyochi nodded. "Ah, so Irma is expressing a sense of disbelief or excitement? Then what does the second part stands for?"

Kimi sighed, seeming unsure how to reply. "You don't want to know."

Kyochi rasied an eyebrow. Now that perked his interest. "Why?"

Kimi pointed to his table. "Shouldn't you be doing your thesis?"

Kyochi smiled sweetly, trying to plead with her. "I'm taking a short breather. Tell me, why does it mean? Is it short for something that I can't understand culturally?"

"No."

"Is it a humorous joke?"

"No."

"Is it one of those insider's joke?"

"No." Kimi was starting to sound annoyed.

Kyochi thought and his eyes widened in horror. "Is it...vulgar?"

Kimi said nothing. Her silence was answer enough.

"Oh, I see..." Kyochi deflated.

"It's not particularly so," Kimi replied. "Koji said that when a person finds something extremely humorous, this is what they reply. In other words, they are laughing so much that it feels as if a part of their body parts has fallen off."

Leaning in closer, she whispered into Kyochi's ears and finally told him what LMFAO means. Kyochi blinked again. Starring down at his phone, he said, "Earthlings are very strange with their messages. For a moment, I thought it meant 'Let-me-feed-adorable-owl'."

At this, Kimi laughed. "I had troubles understanding most of Earthlings' digital messages, too. I still do sometimes. Honestly, I find such concepts to be a degradation upon the art of language."

Kyochi smiled and suddenly there was another ping. The siblings looked down to see that Will, Taranee, and Hay Lin and joined in on the reply but their answers were...

Will: LOLZ 'D

Taranee: OMG LQTM :D

Irma: LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLLOLOLOLOLOLOLLLLOOLOL XDXDXDXD'p

Hay Lin: 哈哈哈 :D

"Kimi, is my phone broken or did your friends just intentionally bombarded me with a barrage of random letters?"

Kimi said nothing. Instead, she handed him back his device, began to pull out her own smartphone, swipe and typed something on it. His phone gave a small beep upon receiving Kimi's reply in the group text. To his surprised, Kimi has uploaded a short animated video of Cornelia shrieking her head off while Kyochi was trying to wrestle the little own out of her hair from that day.

Kyochi's mouth dropped. When did Kimi took a video and saved it? He glanced up to see his sister giving him a sly and mischievious smile.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

Will: OMG! LOL XD

Taranee: ROFL! Stomach hurts too much! CAN'T BREATHE! XD

Hay Lin: LMHO 哈哈哈呵呵呵 Too funny!

Irma: THIS IS GOLD! LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL TY KIMI!

The phone began to ring. It was Cornelia and she didn't sound too happy on the line.

"Kimi! That was you! I know it it was! Dammit! I can't believe the gall that you have to do this!"

Kimi shrugged and answered with a nonchalant attitude. "Why are you so mad? I thought you of all people like to be the center of attention. Should I send a copy to the Grumper sisters?"

Kimi might not be able to get a read on Cornelia's flaming red aura, but she just imagined the Earth Guardian's face turning livid.

"You wouldn't dare!"

"Well, I'm feeling quite generous with you all today. Kyochi is very busy with his dissertation this weekend, so I would appreciate it if you could get Irma to stop pestering him unless it's a real emergency. Otherwise, I might get angry, my finger might slip, and the Grumpers might have a new gossip to blog by next Wednesday."

There was moment of silence on the other end. Kimi could hear a faint argument between the Water and Earth Guardian before finally Cornelia returned her attention to the phone.

"Fine! You're so lucky that I'm not there and that owl is even luckier to be gone! Otherwise I would show you a thing or two!"

Kimi smirked, unimpressed with her threat. "Glad that we have this little chat."

Kyochi watched Kimi turned off her phone as she lean back against his pillow to continue her book.

"You weren't serious about blackmailing Cornelia, were you?" he asked.

"Of course, I wouldn't. I get had to get them to leave us alone for the next few days," Kimi shrugged. She grabbed for her headphones again and replugged the cable into her phone's audio jack.

"You didn't have to go that far," Kyochi interjected.

"Of course, I did," Kimi shot him a warning look. "You couldn't stop answering Irma's messages! And sooner or later, the others would have jumped in and try to convince us to join them on their little outing. You have to work on your dissertation and I already promised to meet up with Koji later."

Kyochi sighed in defeat before returning to his desk. "You most certainly have a way with dealing with people."

"And you have a paper to get back to."

Author's note: I can't believe it's been over a year since I last updated a chapter for this story. Sorry, life got busy. But I hope that you will like this little bonus. Yes, sadly, the little owl from chapter two is gone. In the end, Kyochi decided it was best to bring it to the wildlife rescue shelter. So goodbye to Dr. Hoot! And as you may have figured out from what Kimi did to Hay Lin in the last chapter, she has a tendency to go overboard with her unhinged plan at times.

Hay Lin's version is more or less the Chinese version of LOL.

And also, sadly the people of Flint in the US state of Michigan are still suffering from toxic polluted water, a lot of third-world countries such as those in Africa don't have access to quality medical care, and currently the topic on guarantee free medicare as a right is a very hot button debate along with climate changes, etc, and will continue to play a huge role in American politics in the next few years. Since Kyochi is a medical student, I can imagine him looking at it for his master thesis.