08 April 2025

you're not a victim; you're lazy

"She does what?" Ladybug asks.

"She makes assumptions about me, believes herself to be correct, like a true narcissist, never asks questions, and then behaves according to her own bad-deductions," she explains.

"Just like that other one, the, uh, what was it," Ladybug thinks for a moment.

"The bitchy-agro," she sighs.

"Yes, that's it, bitchy-agro. Just like that?" Ladybug wonders.

"Yes," she sighs.

Ladybug takes a deep breath in and then huffs.

"Like, why is it always the stupidest people who think that they know everything, assume that they've, like, figured it out?" she stomps.

"Dunning and Kruger," Ladybug shakes its head.

"Don't I know it," she shrugs, despondent; "Enough about the losers."

"Yes, of course," Ladybug buzzes off and then loops back around to meet her on the trail.

"Lady?" she starts.

"Yea," Ladybug invites.

"Why don't people just open their mouths and ask?" she asks.

"On an individual level, I could never know such a thing, but in a general sense, it seems like people, in general, are very egocentric. You know?" Ladybug suggests. 

"Yea, like the types who, after you ask them a question about themselves, they keep talking as if you're, like, so interested in them, but really, you're just making conversation, but then they keep talking about themselves, and then, they never even ask you a single reciprocal question, cause like, they're such losers that nobody has ever shown any interest in them, and so, if you're the one who accidentally paid them a modicum of attention, by asking them a question, they suddenly think that you're like obsessed with them, like you care, and you want to know their entire life story, or like, you're literally the only person in the whole world who they will ever be able to tell their life story, etc., but really, you're just making conversation, cause, like, you're a decent person, and this is a social world in which we are all trapped, etc.," she vents.

"Most people are not cool," Ladybug sighs.

"Don't I know it," she sighs.

"So, don't worry about it," Ladybug shrugs.

She stops for a second, looks out over the shallow stream and then across the field between them and the Listmaker's Ranch.

"What do you want to eat?" Ladybug asks.

"A lobster roll," she states as she starts to stroll.

"Great! A lobster roll it is! What is it?" Ladybug asks.

"Ugh, Lady," she slump-shouts.