ataraxion | oo1 ♕ ( t e x t )

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oo1 ♕ ( t e x t )

[ it takes her longer than she likes to figure out how to work the device; after enough cautious tinkering, rhoda manages to work her way around the text function. it's still damned fiddly; the keys are smaller than that of a typewriter and she has yet to discover how to underline words for emphasis (which is perhaps for the best; she would certainly abuse that option, though now what you get is the wanton abuse of capslock in its place). ]

I understand that NO amount of scrubbing will rid me of the markings on my arm.
However, might I inquire as to whether there are any witches aboard this star-ship who have at the very least succeeded in HIDING it under a Glamour?
I would attempt to do so myself, but I don't know if there are any enchantments or wards upon the thing already. No one wishes to have their magic BACKFIRE upon them, naturally.
Beyond that, should anyone care to explain just WHY we must be branded like CATTLE as though we were PROPERTY of this vessel, I would be INFINITELY grateful.

Yours Faithfully,
Lady Rhoda Lamb

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There are nosferatu and men who can turn into wolves, if that counts.
They can't use magic as we can, but they're not exactly beings of science.
And then you've got spirits, who have their own sort of magic, and their own little world they inhabit.
Though I've not had a chance to interact with any of them.

you mean werewolves and fairies?

[ Let him fixate on this little tidbit; if text could convey enthusiasm his text would be glowing shyly. ]

what if you could?

That's right.
Though I wouldn't know what I'd say if I met either.
It all depends on what the individual is like, doesn't it?

[ ooh, is this leading to something? ]

i guess. but aren't you scared of those? werewolves and stuff, they're usually the bad guys in fairy tales.
what if they could hurt you?

[ It might, if he's certain he can trust her. Isaac's never met a real witch, and he maybe really wants to. ]

Ordinary people can be perfectly beastly without growing fur coats.

[ you don't need to grow up during a world war to know that one but it does help get the message out rather early. ]

I think those types are better worth fearing than a few chaps who turn lupine once a month.
At least you can predict when a werewolf might get all tooth and claw-like.

[ It takes him a few seconds to type out a reply, his fingers just stilling for a moment or two as the cursor on the reply field blinks at him. ]

yeah, they can. and sometimes you can't even stop them if you wanted to.

i don't know though, it doesn't look like we're getting lunar cycles on board. someone told me we don't have a moon and all.

Not even magic can help, most of the time. [ she frowns at the screen of her device; couldn't she have chosen something a little more optimistic to say? ]

I suppose we are very far away from Earth.
But if we don't have lunar cycles, does that mean a werewolf wouldn't be able to transform at all?
Or would the transformation begin to operate on a monthly cycle independent of any moons?

it's probably the latter, if luck has anything to say about it. you know how magical creatures seem to always have the worst luck all the time? maybe it's the trade-off for the magic, right?

[ that's probably more revealing than it should be. ]

i hope earth still exists somewhere. :(

Good things are always supposed to have their price, aren't they?
Though how much trouble do you suppose we'd really be in if it that was the case with lycanthropy?

[ since he certainly gives the impression that he would know these things. ]

Earth must be out there somewhere.
Though the trouble is still figuring out exactly where it might be.

[ this impression should be worrying, but isaac's not going to see it until much later. oh, well. one does as one can. ]

we're probably not in the milky way anymore, but that's just my guess.
—you know about star systems, right?

werewolves, though - it's probably always going to be bad. maybe it's nothing a good cage couldn't handle?

Astronomy was never my strong point, but I understand enough.
Considering that people haven't even managed to get to the moon yet, the idea that we might not even be in the same galaxy is almost frightening.

[ actually, leave out the 'almost'. then combine it with the theoretical werewolf situation (what were you expecting, rhoda, puppies?) and suddenly it's very frightening (and slightly absurd). ]

Bad but not unmanageable, with the right equipment.
And magical barriers might also work, but only if there are witches with the right amount of experience on board.

dude, what year is it for you? we've totally made it to the moon. actually you're from earth, right?

[ oh space, what are you doing, why do these questions even qualify for asking? and theoretical puppies aside, you have vampires and other things on board, too. it's a literal space circus, at this point. ]

and. well, we have you, so we have at least one expert on board, that's always good. final frontier or not, having someone with a useful expertise on any ship is always a good thing for everyone.

[ —barring said expert also being off their rocker, but that's for another discussion. ]

I'm definitely from Earth, though last I checked it was 1931.
I get the feeling it isn't for you?

[ because time-related confusion is just what everyone needs on top of everything else. ]

I'm not sure if 'expert' is the right word to use.
Proficient is probably more accurate.
At least until I've gone through two more years at university.

[ just putting that out there. ]

[ He's traveling through time and space, holy sh— ]

i'm from 2011. pretty sure my dad wasn't even alive in 1931. what's it like?? what are the phones like? did you have a stamp collection?

[ Isaac hasn't seen an actual honest-to-goodness collectible stamp in years. ]

right, magic school. is it anything like the school for the chrestomanci? though i don't think diana wynne jones was born yet...
sorry, i don't really know much about 1931 beyond 'world war 1 came before it'.

[ ...stamp collecting? oh god, this is not what her era will be remembered for in the future, is it? ]

I haven't a single clue what 2011 is like so I can't really compare it, but it's all good fun if you get invited to the right sort of parties, I suppose.
Our phones have those little rotary dials that you have to pop your finger in and swivel around when you want to make a call.
The base and receiver are separate too. It's nothing like these sleek things we have on board this ship.
And I don't know anyone who collects stamps. Sorry.

[ some hobbies are kinda lame no matter what year it is. ]

Lancaster College isn't all that different from any of the other Cambridge colleges, even with the magical focus.
We still have to go to lectures and tutorials and write hundreds of essays like everyone else.
There's a school for younger witches, but I can't tell you what it's like there since I was kept at home and had tutors instead.

I don't really mind answering questions.
Thinking about home is a lot easier than thinking about space.
But what is 2011 like? How have films and clothing changed?

[ she stops for a moment and considers asking if the notion of a world war 1 means it gains a sequel in the future, but rhoda decides she'd rather not depress herself with that sort of information. she's already stuck in space; she needn't add to her anxieties. ]

[ the future gets better, and also worse. yes, a second world war happens, and its evils spread across four continents and several peoples. men develop the nuclear bomb, and ethnic cleansing becomes a more pressing concern with the progress of tools meant to kill. the sexual revolution is in progress; it gets horrible before it gets better. so many isms now exist, and too many people broadcast their prejudices under the banners of righteousness.

the world isn't really any better. it's just better-made, differently dressed, less tight with its corsets.

but isaac doesn't have a place in him for all of that. ]

well, for starters, films now come in colors. like, there's technicolor at first, i think it starts with Wizard of Oz but that comes out in 1939 along with Gone with The Wind, and then there's high-definition where all the colors are really crisp and real-looking. After that there's blu-ray and 3D, and i think you'll find a lot of those here on the ship if we've got a media library; they're like, digital video encoding formats.

music's got a wider variety, too, but it's the same as with anything that has too many options, there's some pretty awful music thrown in with the good. did you have rock music back then? there's also hip-hop, and pop music, and dance music. not the kind of dance you'd think, too, you can't do a waltz to it or anything.

oh, and television. they come in around the 1940s if i remember right, and they're like little home theatres you can own and keep at the house. you can bring home your films, right, watch them whenever you wanted. you wouldn't need the radio or the newspapers to check the news, you could just watch it on the tv, and you could watch things happening from all over the world as they're happening. a bomb could go off in china and you'll hear about it in england in minutes, that sort of thing.

[ written out like that, it sounds like the future's such a beautiful place. ]

There's certainly a library somewhere around here.
I'll have to make a little visit later, I think.

Rock music sounds so peculiar. There aren't any actual rocks involved, I take it?
We've got jazz, which is the sort of thing you dance to in nightclubs, since waltzing is all well and good, but sometimes you'd rather do the Charleston or a foxtrot instead.
I expect by your time that sort of dancing must seem awfully archaic and unfashionable.

But how unfair that I'll have to wait ten years to own a television!
It sounds like the most wonderful little convenience, since to watch the news now you have to drag yourself to the cinema and then they show the same newsreels for the longest time.
Though I bet all those po-faced old men who already hate films are going to fume at the very idea of it.

[ ignorance has never been so blissful; most places do sound wonderful when the politics are left out of it. ]

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oo1 ♕ ( t e x t )

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