001 ♙ video ♙ how the other half lives

[cloy]

[ In response to this post.

When the picture comes on what you find is a beautiful woman with heart-shaped face and a head of curly red hair, half-done up like she's someone important (she isn't). When she talks, there's a lazy drawling quality to her voice, as well as an air of condescension and carelessness. It's hard to tell just how much she really means the things she says, whether she's actually frustrated or not. But the fact that Ros — who's never posted on the Network before — has finally bothered to speak up must be an indication of something. (Right?)

She sits with an elbow propped up onto a table, her chin settled into the seat of its palm. Despite the nature of her message, she smiles frivolously. As if she hadn't a care in the world. ]

S'not my business — all those secrets of yours you lot are hiding in plain sight. Leave cleverness to the clever ones, I say. [ Her smile widens as if to add I'm not clever at all, I'm just a whore, but that's window dressing really. Distraction and deflection. If she wasn't clever, Ros wouldn't have all her teeth, wouldn't work for Littlefinger. She'd be bottom of the barrel and Ros has managed just fine, thank you. ] But if you're going on and on 'bout how we're all meant to save our skins and the means to do it, here's a friendly bit'f advice:

Not all of us can read, dears.

Now you learned lot might come from places full'f words and numbers. Where babes come tumbling out their mothers smart as maesters 'prentices, too busy with reading to even stop for a suckle. But some of us don't. Some of us had t'work for a living. The dirty kind'f work that gets your hands messy. [ That turn of phrase seems to amuse her. She thinks of farmhands in the fields, of smiths at their forges. (Yes, terribly messy.) She thinks about how she's fucked them all — and lords too. (Yes, Ros can be clever sometimes.) ] The sweaty kind'f work.

And we dirty, sweaty, dumb lot — we want to live, same as you.

So if all your whispering's a bit of nothing — then carry on, good as you like. But if it's a bit of something, well— [ She tips her head and, for the first time in the feed, looks expectant rather than bored. ] —give us a listen, mm?

Comments

video

[maredementis]

I'm sorry.

[She had nothing to do with it. Why is she sorry?

Because hard work, sweaty work, sounds like home. I can't read strikes Annie as sad--to be left out of so much here, that's not fair.]

I could read them to you.

permavideo.

[cloy]

[ Ros lifts her eyebrows, her tone too easy to be abrasive, though her words might chafe. ] Why sorry, dear?

S'not your fault, s'not mine. [ She makes no address to Annie's offer, however. Ros is far too proud to accept having a woman read to her like a nursemaid. ]

video all the time

[birdhousesoul]

[Hear, hear! Approval + 10, Ros. Anders is all about class consciousness. He just ... doesn't have the modern vocabulary for all the concepts involved. But he'll rail about it whenever the moment arises!]

You've made a fair point, serah. No one learns his letters -- or hers -- without expenditure of someone's time and coin. It's no credit to the learned that they've had that time and coin spent on their behalf. All babes are born naked and with empty hands!

permavideo THE SEQUEL.

[cloy]

[ It's a crier or something of the like — one of the men who stand on boxes in the market and talk out about usurpers and kings. More often than not those men lost their heads, so long as it was King Joffrey who wore the crown. But this crier is a bit more sophisticated than calling the Hand a dancing demon monkey or the king the bastard spawn of incest.

She lifts an eyebrow. ]

You talk sharp, don't you, stranger. And smart. [ A beat. ] Do you know how to read? Or are just you one of the dirty, dumb lot who's learned a bunch'f large words.

[voice]

[jurisimpudent]

[Edgeworth hesitates before responding. He's embarrassed for her, and maybe half-unconsciously he pitches his voice just a little bit lower than he usually does to speak so that maybe if she despises him for this it wouldn't be immediately evident who he is.]

There are a few options to remedy this, if you should choose. There's a fellow on-board who's extremely adept with machinery and who could design something to convert text posts into audio posts. Alternatively, if you were so inclined, I should be glad to teach you.

[ permavideo ]

[cloy]

[ Ros tics her head carelessly, her reaction neither here nor there at the suggestion. It should be her hide she's looking after, not anyone else's. But it's typical, the way educated folk go about looking to solve the rabble's problems. No one ever thinks to dumb things down, to make it easier, to include the mess.

No, what they say is: Work harder. Get smarter. Be us. Never the other way around. ]

Teach a whore t'read. Teach her box how to talk. And what about the rest, then? [ She asks this as if she doesn't care either way, like she simply wants to know what his enlightened answer will be. ] You looking t'teach all of us?

[video] casually smears self on every one of yours

[doggedly]

[Oh hey hot lady....]

Sort of an outlandish request you're making, I think.

MY RENFAIRE NEEDS 100% MORE SIRIUS BLACK IN THEIR LIVES ALWAYS

[cloy]

[ You may be a dog, Sirius Black, and have a fancy for girls and wolves, but this one is pure cat. Temperamental and coy and does what she likes.

She smiles at him, handsome boy that he is. (And he is a boy.) ]

Well— that's why I'm here, isn't it? To entertain the lot of you.

permavid.

[culver]

[nill just wanted to turn on the video so she could nod vigorously at this. no, she couldn't read either. she didn't know much about what else the woman was saying, but she could agree that it wasn't fair to people who couldn't read to expect them to get along just as well as anyone else.]

OH GODS ABOVE HELP ME SHE'S TOO ADORABLE.

[cloy]

[ She smiles at the girl, a bit bemused. ]

Can't read either, pretty thing?

video.

[shoyu]

[ wow, what a gorgeous woman. have a brief moment of hesitation, and then, politely: ]

I imagine the people who put together those sets of information only thought about making it convenient to access in small portions -- but it does sound like they've forgotten to address the needs of some.

It may not be much, but would an offer to read out what's been written there make any difference, m'lady?

permavideo!

[cloy]

[ Ros laughs. Not cruelly, as she'd laughed at Edgeworth — but brightly and full of life. She'd never been a lady; Ros knows she never will be. ]

"Only thought about making it convenient"? That's certainly one way to put it. Y'think they gave one thought t'those of us who can't tell an 'A' from an ass? [ Ros thinks not. People like her weren't worth much beyond the sweat of their backs, so why should they be given any consideration at all? ]

( VIDEO )

[archaeologize]

So, I've got to ask. How long have you been on this ship that no one's offered to teach you?

[ Holloway bluntness go. He's honestly - curious. ]

( VIDEO )

[cloy]

Oh, I've had offers. Plenty, in fact. [ No, not plenty, but Ros isn't the type to count. ] People 'round here can be generous, if they feel like it.

But some of us aren't built for smart. And some don't even bother to ask.

anon voice | all those super encryptions used in the post

[coffeeking]

[It's a risk to use his voice with a stranger, so he does his best to disguise his accent as American. He's not half bad at it.]

Ah, our apologies. We're accustomed to worlds where most everyone's taught to read as children, no matter their social status. I think we may be able to rig up a text-to-voice function for you.

voice | all those super encryptions used in the post

[cloy]

[ Ros never forgets a face but voices — those are a bit harder to match. She doesn't make a habit of crawling the network like some people, but she is rather a fan of gossip and so has heard more of the comings and goings of the other passengers than anyone would give her credit for. Still, she doesn't recognize his voice. Good on you, Ianto.. ]

S'not me you need you should be worrying after. It's the ones too stupid to ask. [ Stupid, or ashamed. But Ros doesn't include the later. ]

[wolfinthesnow]

Don't I know you?

[cloy]

[ She's about to make light of it. A joke or a tease when her gaze catches and she smiles in slow realization. ]

You tell me, milord. As for me, I never forget a face.

[allucinator]

I told you I'd teach you, love. Somebody tell you what it all says yet?

[cloy]

[ Finally, a friendly face. Ros almost looked relieved to see him. ]

Got myself plenty of offers. [ She smiles, whip sharp. ] Wouldn't say no to another, Jack Kelly.

video

[constructum]

You don't know how to read? [ There is a look of surprise, mixed with a slight bit of skepticism (it's just not a common things - not knowing how to read - she has to slightly wonder how much truth is really there with that.) as she quickly considers her words.

Bluntly: ] Why haven't you learned yet?

permavideo.

[cloy]

[ Not a single of Ros' feathers seemed ruffled, both by Ariadne's obvious question and Ariadne's silly one. In fact she smiles, though not in a kind way, her hand playing absently with a slowly fraying braid. ]

I've been here two months, dear, [ she says, her voice a tune of singsong condescension. ] That how long it took your lot t'read?

Filtered; 15% Whatever, man. He's picking some things up. He hates the communicators.

[killarevolution]

[All these offers. Haymitch can smell pride far enough away- there's a tactic you learn in the arena and just as well in the Capitol, watching the other tributes mulling about. That one, he's proud. He'll slip up. In other cases, though, it means that you have to try a different tactic.]

So what's the going rate on information these days? Haven't been keeping track.

[This is what she wants, clearly. Not charity, but something on more equal terms. Being from Twelve and being a stubborn fool, Haymitch can respect that.]

Filtered; 15% Whatever, man.

[cloy]

[ Ros doesn't know who the stranger is, nor does she really care at the end of the day. But he sings a song — rough, though his voice be — that's as good as mockingbird's. And Ros knows her mockingbirds — by hook or by crook, she learned that lesson.

She voice is as good as a purr and this one &mash; why, she's fickle as a cat. ]

Far more than a tumble, I'm afraid. Depends what a lonely ear has to offer.

v o i c e ;

[snaketrap]

There were always maidens who walked our halls with high chins and bruised knees, and for some reason they thought their chest aught be proud with gems and gold earned well through satin secrets.

Yet they forget, all too often, what lips spill in warmth and night is given to them by a man, the same man whom bestow her such jewels and make her knees heal.

It has always been an interest of mine, what drives such sense of importance in the mind of a harlot.

p e r m a v i d e o ;

[cloy]

[ This one speaks like a proper lord — all pomp and pronunciation. His tone is one of entitlement and his words are the kind that are far too eager to remind her just exactly where her place is in the world. Ros, to her credit, hasn't forgot it and she isn't so dumb as to insist that she deserves any more than the next simply because she's lowly. She'd made her play and she'd got what she wanted — offers for help and a splash of information (she can only hope Littlefinger will be happy with what she's done). She's also won a bit of pity, which leaves a poor taste in her mouth but — no plan's perfect.

Ros knows that the same thing that lays her low and down upon her knees is the same thing that make her brash and proud. A man's cock is what makes her important, and she won't believe otherwise until men stop fucking her altogether. ]

There's a bit'f life in a whore that's proud, milord, [ she says, humming, not chastened at all. ] Some men find a fancy in that, is all.

( audio. )

[raffish]

If we leave the cleverness to the clever ones, then who is left to do the dumb shit?

( permavideo. )

[cloy]

[ Ros shrugs, devil-may-care. ]

S'pose that leaves dumb shit to the dumb shits, dear.

voice;

[maleit]

The lines are too close together.

[ Which is his bit of a confused way of agreeing. Yoite can read, he can absolutely read, but he's also essentially legally blind and was very much not concerned enough to speak up. ]

So, um.

Thanks.

permavideo;

[cloy]

[ His response is genuinely the first one that flat-out confuses Ros. The non sequitor about the lines being too close together as well as the expression of gratitude — something Ros has never quite understood. ]

And what lines are that?

video

[the_bull]

[Wait. That meant... And his face started to turn red, before he plowed ahead.]

Same no matter where you go.

permavideo!

[cloy]

[ She regards him for a moment. The smith's apprentice from earlier on. ]

Your master never teach you letters? [ She sounds wholly unsurprised. ]

[northerner]

[ alkjdsalkfd ros ]

And has no one here offered to teach you your letters? Not even your master?

[cloy]

[ Well, hello there. This one may not be the king of the capital, but he's king of somewhere and — unlike Joffrey Baratheon — he's here. Which means he's as good as Ros' king, for the time being.

She gives a tip of her head, but doesn't artfully bow. ]

I've won plenty of offers, Your Grace, but I haven't a master here.

( video )

[cheerioless]

[ she's not asking to be taught, and quinn's going to assume that someone's offered by now, knowing how eager some of the people on this ship are to help with things. ]

I'm sorry. I'll remember that next time I have to make a ...[ what do you call them anyways? broadcasts? posts? she's been learning all about hacking and encrypting and she had no idea what to call it. ] well, video then.

( permavideo )

[cloy]

[ She's a pretty girl — young and seemingly eager enough to help. And so, for her, Ros simply smiles easily, giving something of a nod. Usually it was men who earned her claws, but a woman (or a good) could easily enough as well.

But not this one, not yet. ]

That's good of you, dear. [ A pause and then: ] I haven't seen your face before. A quiet one, are you? Or just new?

video;

[ringbearer]

[ that saddens him greatly. frodo baggins loves(loved) to read, finds a great joy at reading, of learning--and this woman was kind to him when he arrived and he had not forgotten it. so when he appears, still with the same old eyes, cleaner, his voice is not full of pity. ]
I'd be glad to read it to you, Miss--to help you learn, also.

permavideo;

[cloy]

[ Oh, there is that sweet face again. (Ros is fond of him, in a manner. Not proper fond, but is pleased to see him nevertheless.) ]

Hello again, dear. Keeping busy, have you? [ Her smile is still suggestive at its edges but for him she curbs it to spare him too much fluster. ] Why the long face?

[withfireandblood]

[ Ros reminds Daenerys of Doreah, although Doreah had a little more subtlety to her. Daenerys knows her letters, knows how to read but she hasn't had cause to yet - she doesn't recall seeing any text yet (although saying as such would imply that she knew how to completely work the strange magics that she's been given)

But she's still concerned. The way this woman puts it it sounds like it happens frequently ]

Are there many texts?

[ She'd ask what they were but it seems futile to, but if they're secrets they would be important. But are they even supposed to be read? ]

[cloy]

[ There is a certain manner that comes with being raised amongst the halls of a pleasure house. Being a child exposed to such rough things means the women grow up rough as well (though often smoothed away and hidden by coy expression or curling lip). The woman is striking (that hair, so silver) and so Ros' attention lingers on her image before finally answering, easy as can be: ]

More than enough to chafe. [ She doesn't seem bothered, to be honest. ] You're new, dear. I can tell.