ataraxion | video

Hello, my dear friends and employees, or otherwise unpaid labor, of varying qualifications and levels of skill. [The woman in the video looks like a man, actually.

Specifically, a younger specimen, fair-skinned, possibly English in ancestry for those of us for whom the idea of England has not gone entirely out of style or yet to come in. He has squidgy eyes, floppy brown hair, a smirk that gets him laid, sometimes, usually only if he's using it to format a particularly nerdy pick-up line. Charles probably looks approximately as inebriated as the last time you saw him, if you saw him since Arima, but that certainly is his comm device.] This is Charles Xavier, whom you should recognize as the leadership of the recent Xenobiology undertaking in the etcetera etcetera.

[He waves, vaguely. Etcetera. From the perspective of the video, it appears that the left half of his shirt buttons has been closed up two holes too high, leaving the front obviously misaligned.]

I regret to report that I'm entirely pants at drinking, and I am in consequence quite shagged. Not in the fun way, [he reassures.] No, I reassure you in that department I remain devoutly deprived. However, I would like to encourage you all to take the day off work, as I will be nursing a hangover in the thing. [He gestures off-screen, vaguely also.] And we must lead by example. Tuhraah.

[Click.]

(OOC: Done with permission.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

( nuala is patient, through that reaction - the tenor of it is something she might've predicted. she knew what she was saying, when she chose her words, for all that she meant them wholeheartedly. )

No, indeed; though how can you not admire her for her eminently sensible reaction to the situation in which she found herself? ( this is almost like playing along. ) True, you and I know better, but you and I have been here for some months, now, and learned much in that time. Were I to arrive here all anew, were I not so distracted as I was at my own arrival, perhaps I'd have joined such a woman and done my best to aid her.

Mmm. I'm not sure that I, being Charles Xavier, can sanction that so much-- and I'm glad you didn't. I'dve have even more grey to my hair then, with the lot of you, ['Charles' says, smiling, looking terribly pleased about something.] But I appreciate your honesty. Now if you'll give me but a moment--

[The camera flips around to Nuala's right, showing a blank wall, the edge of a bedframe. If she manages to get a close look in, the roof of a fluffy brown head is there, too, peeking out over the pillow; someone sleeping in the room where Raven is. Two guesses who.

And then the view flips back, split-second. Raven presents, blue-skinned and red-haired, her eyes blinking yellow at the elf.] Hi, [she says.] I'm Raven.

Hello, Raven.

( quite warmly. )

I am Nuala, once Princess of Bethmoora, ( arguably now its queen; she hesitates to give out that title, however, and this is her most comfortable compromise for the time being ) and presently the member of Xenogen division most responsible for interdepartmental diplomacy.

( one way to put it. )

I've very much looked forward to meeting you.

[No, it makes perfect sense to Raven that Charles would need to interface with diplomacy specialists. His nerdy undertakings have a peculiar habit of leading to mayhem, in no small part because he is incredibly brave and ambitious about them.

Qualities that this Princess has probably picked up on.] You too, [she tells the elf woman, warmly too.] I've never heard of your kingdom before, but I'd like to hear more about it. [One where, she'd guess, she'd stand out far less to look at than Charles and Erik.]

( raven's unusual look might be eye-catching, in bethmoora-that-was, but not for the same reasons she draws attention in what nuala persists in thinking of as the mortal world. in bethmoora, she would be a rare beauty, and likely highly sought after. embarrassingly, even. the fae are not known for their demure subtlety where it comes to romance. )

It lay beneath what men call Eire; the language stamped out by English masters bears resemblance to that which I call my mother tongue. It stood eons, since before the separation of the mortal and the magical, and I choose to remember its best days, the glory of its knowledge and its beauty, and not the war that came after.

( she speaks of bethmoora in the past tense; sometimes, when she isn't paying attention, she speaks of herself the same way. )

[The princess talks like a collection of fairy stories, which to the laywomen, is what a princess should talk like.] That sounds really beautiful, [Raven says, because she talks pretty ordinary, despite her looks and faraway prospects.] You know, I wonder.

Considering your world is secret-- and ours was too, for awhile. I'm sure Charles told you about it, [she settles back in her chair, red eyebrows tucking into a thoughtful squint.] Do you think maybe we lived in the same one? Would you have known about us? Our war?

[With humans, she means. She expects they're talking about the same-- enemy.]

( nuala's exhalation is regretful. )

I'd little contact with the world of mortal men, ( which sounds, at first, as if she's allowing for the possibility, ) but the contemporary time of you and your brother is nearly a half century in my own past.

Given the situation of the world of men, when I came out into it--

No, I'm afraid we didn't.

( a half-smile, sudden: )

But Charles has put forward that if he should find a way back, I might return with you.

Why would you want that?

[It is, Raven thinks, a reasonable question. She folds her hands on the surface of the table, leans closer to the phone, her little red eyebrows tucking down in a thinking kind of consternation.] I mean, we have some good stuff-- Nappa Valley and Stonehenge and stuff like that. [The Princess seems like a wine and misty historical ruins sort of girl. Y'know.]

But wouldn't you want to go home? You have a kingdom.

( simply-- )

I have a tomb. If I leave this world, I return to a grave.

[Raven's eyes widen. Well, she hasn't heard everything.

It's too soon, fortunately, for her to worry about Shaw showing up.]

I'm sorry. I can't even imagine.

It was a necessity.

( her firm briefness doesn't invite further scrutiny. )

But I would be very intrigued by your world, I think - certainly it would be a complicated thing, to go there, but. Perhaps it would suit me.

[A smile ghosts across Raven's face. Warm, but not exactly mirthful. She can imagine the woman making her way in the United States or another country, somewhere on the planet she comes from; how people would react.] It'd definitely be complicated, [she says.]

You probably pass a little better the way you look now than I did, but it'd still be rough. [Her blue face takes a twenty-degree angle in the screen, realizing she took an assumption that was not necessarily wise.] Can you change shapes too? Do elves have... unusual abilities?

Magic is often considered unusual by mortals.

( less so by elves. or at least the kind that produced nuala; she's passingly familiar with the other elves of this ship and their puzzlement at the term. )

There are many ways to alter shape, or merely appearance; I would favour a glamour, if need be.

[Raven hasn't heard that word in that context in a long time. It has been years since Charles' bedtime readings broached the topic of fairies. Delight shows on her blue face.]

Groovy.

[She leans forward slightly, regarding the elf with interest through the device camera.] Can you show me, some time?

I'd be happy to.

[Her teeth are bright white against her bright blue face.]

See you around, Majesty.

video | "02."

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