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TEST DRIVE MEME #7
1. before she hung up, she said she was a skeleton
[there is no note in your cabin. no forces stall your legs if you decide to walk anywhere but the atrium. in fact, for the first time in hundreds of years, newly arrived passengers on the Serena Eterna are waking up with absolutely no guidance. nothing but your fellow passengers in the halls - or maybe in your bed.
perhaps you end up in the atrium eventually anyway. it is where guest services is, and where Gal Friday… actually hasn’t been in a few days. until today. and she is visibly frazzled, her hair uncoiffed, her suit rumpled, something a bit like a bruise blossoming down from her hairline and over her smooth features. more papers than ever cover her desk, and when she turns to face you, her voice is as cheerful as ever, but audibly strained.]
Welcome aboard the Serene Eterna! [a pause] You know how to work a life vest, right? Everyone knows that! You don’t need me to teach you that!
[a light bulb burns out behind her head.]
… I’ll get right on that!
[freedom includes the freedom to not know what the fuck is happening. maybe you should reflect on that.]
2. grandma went and can't stop screaming
[it’s something about the lighting fixtures, this month. has the Bellona always had a massive chandelier? maybe. who knows. don’t ask questions. either way, in the stillness of the night, or day, or late afternoon, there is a noise like a cord being cut, and the chandelier plunges into the audience below.
it hits nothing, of course. no one is ever in the theater. and that, perhaps, is what the trouble is.
so, the chandelier starts to… travel, one could say. it starts to hang in various rooms: the dining halls, the bars, the clubs… sometimes, if you’re out on the pool deck and suddenly realized you’re under a shadow, you can glance up and see it suspended 20 feet above your head, securely fastened to nothing in particular and yet remaining perfectly in place.
until it isn’t. until it falls, crystal shattering on whatever surface it lands on: floor, table, person… and, wherever the chandelier goes, a lilting childish voice follows it, singing without any obvious source.]
Ring-a-ring of roses, a pocket full of posies… ashes, ashes, we all…
3. jeff bezos murdered the infinite tommy bahama
[the lights of the Infinite Tommy Bahama go out three days into October.
barely an hour after its closure, the lights go on again, and a new banner is unfurled.
physically, it is the same store. you can even see the old signs hidden behind the new ones. however, long gone are the tropical prints and khaki dress shorts. now, one can purchase any number of officially licensed or legally distinct Halloween costumes, decorations, and various other haunted accoutrements, leading back as far as the eye can see, and then farther still. is that a Gal Friday mask? spooky! well, at least you’ll be good and ready for the Halloween party at the end of the month, which is absolutely just a normal party and in no way whatsoever anything even remotely resembling a trick. there are only treats at The Infinite Spirit Halloween!
note: bahamanuel is still here! somewhere! it kinda looks like dan bongino.]
no subject
When he explains about the monks, Ari can't help it. She starts laughing.]
I'm sorry, they just... really?
[If she'd been with the other younger lieutenants on her ship, she'd definitely have made some remark to the effect that at least it mattered to them that young men knew how to please a woman - but with someone that bit older, she feels as if a bit more decorum is necessary.] They sound... profoundly hypocritical. What do you like to read, then? I suppose I'll have the opportunity here, and I've got a stack of files on my slate computer that I've always intended to look through.
[She's not sure how being in his own country would change his response to Tradeline customs of privacy, but she accepts that it would, in some way.] It was impossible for anything to be private, to be just for you, because you owned it all? [That's her closest guess, at least.] I do understand, I think. I don't like that this isn't my ship, that I don't have any authority or responsibility here, that I don't have a department to look after, something to give meaning to the day. I don't like not having control over everything - and I know I didn't back home, but I trusted my captain, so that was different. All of that must be worse for you. You had a whole country.
no subject
I'd read all nonfiction, anything informative, and none of it exists aboard this ship. Another difference between myself and the Captain. The library only has fiction, and then our -- the passengers' own compiled notes. I've taken to the Bailey School Kids series, because schools don't exist in my world, and Yuuki Natsuno recommended me HP. Lovecraft. Maeve is a big fan of Westerns, so that's what I'm trying next.
Not just the privacy, my whole life is public, because of politics. But likewise, romance was -- difficult. Any single action I took no matter how "small," could have wide repercussions.
[He nods.] It's not that I think I can go anywhere, [Because even HE wasn't that rude!] Just the idea that not everyone knows my reputation or intentions or capacity to understand the meaning. Everyone is suffering a bit of culture clash with each other when it comes to meanings of marriage or romance, but I don't think most of them were quite as removed from humanity as I was. Klaus perhaps for different reasons. Crichton, because there weren't any other humans except Peacekeepers, who do not count. [A nod.] I don't miss the political buffer at all, but it's unbalancing. Like I'm use to having to use so much force to break barriers that now without those barriers, I'm free falling and braced for something that isn't there.
no subject
That sense of falling is freedom, though, and at the risk of being appallingly trite, once you get your bearings you won't have to fall, you can fly too. I mean - didn't you ever have a contracted partner, back home? You must have had heirs. It's different for Tradeliners. I won't have any of that. [She says it lightly, but there's a flicker of something sad in her eyes.]
I think culture clash is inevitable, not just over that but everything else as well. If you and I are to be friends, though, we can be honest with one another. If either of us does something the other finds culturally... troubling, we can talk about it, instead of making assumptions or getting offended. Fair contract?
[Whether or not he agrees, she turns back to something he said earlier.] I never went to school either, but schools did exist on Cardalek. [It's not that she couldn't afford an education, of course. Ari, Carrington project that she was, had some of the best individual tutors the Company could source.] It's... [she prevents herself from saying anything too rude] exceptionally irritating that there aren't useful books here. I'd share mine with you, but I only have the one computer, and I don't know if you'd want histories of my sector or technical manuals or writings on liberty from the slow ship colonies anyway.
no subject
In retrospect; this language we're speaking now is English. America speaks English, I have no idea how that fallout happens. In my time, I thought they'd fall apart between the other two countries on their isle, and without religious or political cohesion. But they wind up taking over huge portions of the world instead. Spain and Portugal must have messed up pretty badly, but no one seems to remember how. [Just shrugs. He'll figure it out EVENTUALLY. Maybe.] I'd adore political texts. Historical works of any time or culture. [Laughs and waves a hand.] But hold onto them until I can give you equal barter, or I get a device that allows me to read them on my own. Computer. [A soft laugh and a headshake.] Cesar Salazar is much the same way. He has a tablet and a few texts saved. But things have been tetchy this month, and I have nothing to offer. Yet.
There's no schools in hell. Portugal is our main trading partner, they have a university. Here... [Points to Portugal on his Earth map, and the bigger Spain.] And we barely have much to offer them to make them willing to come all the way around the world. That was my dream. To give them reason to come to us and bring us what we couldn't make ourselves. We don't even have chairs. China does. [Points to the big mainland to the West.] But it would have been a waste of resources for us. In the future, we do. And we even have the European beds you'll find around here. But when we started off, we had almost nothing to offer, and we were too divided for them to navigate politically. [Drinks his juice.] All education is done through the monks. I know I can't go back and update my country to all these new ideas, but it's been my habit for -- my whole life now to absorb everything Europe has to tell me, about their history, about the best way they do things, and then make it my own, improve it.
I have a book of Cantigas De Amigas at home. Songs of Friends. Portuguese poetry. My second gift of a book after their bible... [Laughs!] Bible is... A European holy book. Their religious text. Compiled over thousands of years. Even though I fought my region's religion most extremely, Luis Frois kept insisting I was doing his god's work. He's a funny man. But the poetry is what he gave me second. I run the poetry club here. [A pause...] What was my point in bringing this up? [Smacks fist into opposite hand.] Ah yes! I will absorb any information in any form I can. Except romance is dead last.
Absolutely. Fair contract. We'll just ask. I told Klaus I feel like I should give the whole ship a safeword. So they can tell me when they need breathing space. This is another thing I am unused to. [Nod nod.] Creating lines for other people to give me. [Laughs and shakes his head.] I suppose none of them would be either. A Demon King thing as it were.
Why can't Tradeliners have contracted partners or heirs? If that's not too troublesome to ask?
no subject
She's also not sure what failing of logic meant that she didn't question the ease of their communication, but that's one she'll keep to herself.] I could switch to Company Standard, or Siduri'in, or Devetka... [There, that makes her point well enough.]
Look, you don't find your individuality by copying others. That's as true for cultures as it is for people. If you want your homeland to flourish, you need to encourage imagination and invention among your own people. Of course trade is essential, but you have to make your trading partners see the value in what you produce. [She shrugs.] I like my old bed better than the ones here. It was smaller, but it folded right up to give you more workspace. [It's a very silly complaint, but perhaps she can be forgiven for all the culture shock. Ari's not used to inefficiencies of space.]
We don't have that word in Standard. Marriage. I'm not sure what it is. Partnership contract is a special type of being in contract where you both pledge to each other, and it's often about romance but not always. Sometimes it's business. It depends on the situation. Tradeliners can do it, but it's difficult, because it'd have to be with someone on your own ship. It wouldn't work if they were planetside, you'd only see them a couple of times a year at best, so there wouldn't be any point. The contract would be up before you'd spent much time together.
As for why I personally can't? I have ambitions. I want my own ship someday. Can you tell me that if you were in command, you'd allow a pregnant woman to work aboard a ship that could be going into battle? That you'd allow children there? It's ruinous to a career. [Ari is exaggerating. There are Tradeliner careerists who take a year or two away to have a baby, and then leave it to be raised by family while they return to the stars - but at Ari's age, even the minimum necessary time away seems like an unacceptable delay.]
no subject
[Nobunaga nods.] I prefer futons as well, but I like how squeaky European beds are. [What a thing to say. He really did just say that.]
Marriage is a contract. Some religions view it as sacred. It's a partnership, but not always of equals. When I proposed to Kichou, he still would have been under my rule, so -- [Shrugs.] It is of finances and ownership in my time. But many centuries to the future, the time and culture for most people here, Marriage is just a deepening of relationships. A "next level" kind of thing. I think some on board here are married.
Do contracts always have a clearly defined end date? That would have made dealing with Kichou easier. [Well, Kichou DID end his contract with Nobunaga so...] Marriage is usually without end, so that would be why that word doesn't exist for you.
I would allow a pregnant woman to fight, yes. And children if they could handle themselves.
These things... in hell, not fighting is a luxury. As much as I want to ensure it, make it available to everyone... it finds people anyway. Kichou wanted an all female unit of soldiers. I don't-- didn't ever disagree with him on that. But I do want to allow women who don't want to fight the chance not to have to. These are very old arguments between him and me. Moot ones too, if I never see him again.
I know Japan's strength. Our production. It is like guns. Guns weren't invented in Japan, but we still made them better, and improved upon them. I still used them in ways the Europeans didn't think of. Much like the all female unit Kichou wanted. There's a lot of strong female gunners here. Kichou would love it. It's terrifying to contemplate. [Small low dark chuckle.] Bwahahaha.
no subject
Partnership contracts always have an end date, but people can renew them if they want to stay together, the contract doesn't have to end. A contract without end seems strange to me. What if they lived another century, and grew to hate one another? What happened to Kichou, when you were partnered? I don't think I could have that sort of contract with someone in my department. If I cared that much about them, how could I send them into danger? And if I keep them safe, how is that fair on everyone else?
[Maybe he'd be less sentimental about it than she would be, if in his culture it's all nothing but politics. On the next point, though, she's very firm.] If I were captain, I wouldn't take any pregnant women - and no children. Nobody below twelve standard years. [Yes, that's her cut-off.] I'd tell them to wait. One of our duties is to protect other people so that they don't have to fight. Everyone should have the choice not to, man or woman. I agree with you there. Why did he want an all-female unit, anyway? There's no need for separation. Separate washing facilities, that's all. Otherwise they can fight alongside the men. [Ari's understanding of warfare is considerable, but it's very much limited to the kind involving starships.]
Cw: castes, gendered politics in sengoku era wars, brothels ya
Konnichiwa. Namae wa Oda Nobunaga: maou to Unifier no Nippon. Watashi no sewa o shite kurete arigatou.
Or my favorite: wakarimasen. Means: I don't understand. I feel like I say that a lot. English is very strange to me. "Soka" in Japanese gets translated about 14 different ways. The same word. Why is that? Sometimes it's, "I see." Or "Understood?" Or, "Is that so?" Or "right." I guess it doesn't have a direct translation in English, but why not? And I have no one to ask. Natsuno Yuuki probably doesnt care.
"Wow," in English I just hate. In Japanese it's "Sugoi." So I have to fiddle with it like, "Impressive! Quite impressive!" But if I don't remember to do so, it sounds all pop and wrong. Wow. [Says it sarcastically that time.] And there's no dictionary so I have to rely on others to be my guide.
Kichou is not enough of a masochist to deal with me, alas. [Wow, he made that sound 500 times worse than it already is!!!] He's one of the most brilliant men in the world of our time. Maybe even of human history to our point. I don't know why he changed, he wouldn't tell me, there wasn't enough trust, surely. [He closes his eyes, thinking, remembering.
Hard mode, Kichou's route isn't out yet, and Nobunaga doesn't know that Kichou time traveled.]All of us hated the wars, wanted everyone to stop wasting their lives, throwing them away to gods who don't give a damn about them, if they even exist at all. This, I am sure of. [So how did Kichou start courting anarchy and pirates?] I think he grew to fear that a Unified Japan might bring more death than not. That tyranny under Oda, my rule, would be just as bad or worse than everyone continuing to fight. But I do not know how, how i failed him. [That's a genuinely sad note. If he knew how to heal Kichou's heart, he would.]
[And Nobunaga snaps out of it with a soft laugh when she finishes.] All women, divided because... it is the most divisive. [Another laugh and he holds his hand up, shaking his head.] That's a bad joke, sorry. It is... multi-faceted. The monks believe women's role is family, raising the children. Kichou and I hate the castes more than anything. I think he often feared, perhaps, I hated the waste of life more than the castes, or maybe now that I think of it, maybe it's vice versa. One of my greatest fears would be a future where the castes harden even more, where that bucket the crabs are trapped in truly becomes impenetrable. By using an only woman faction, Kichou sought to undeniably prove women's place on the battlefield, and make it so they aren't beholden to others for their safety.
The problem is... in not allowing for others' safety.
Brothels -- do you have those? They look after their girls well, they have to, of course. But the freedom is so restricted. Almost nonexistent. And there is no way to ensure it's always a personal choice. Luis Frois was always trying to help me with this puzzle. How to allow women freedom without the monks banning such things, but make it truly free, not something they are forced or coerced into either. It is the same with war. None us want the wars, so allowing even more participants runs a great risk of counterproductive effects.