After the ship has been wrecked and the first people have started packing up

[muscovy]

We will stay here now, yes? Because the ship is broken and we cannot go home.

[And chances are low that they will manage to get off planet, but Muscovy doesn't really see a point in that - the planet is warm and while, like every other place, it has its dangers, it seems like a fertile place that one should be able to make a good living on.]

So everyone should get married and have children, yes? Because unless you're immortal you will need them to take care of you when you get old, or ill. And it will be less scary to live here when there are children around, because it will feel more like a place that is home to everyone, yes? And it is a warm feeling to be with family and home, so it will make everyone happier.

If you know whom you want to marry but you don't know how to tell them, you can write them a letter and I will bring it to them!

And if you don't know whom to marry yet, you can tell me and I will tell you who else is trying to find someone to marry and then you can look at each other and talk about it. And then you can have children and be happy, yes?

Comments

[foundafamily]

[How Firo wishes he were right next to Muscovy so he could snatch the device out of his hands. As it is, he's surely hustling himself over there right now.]

M-Muscovy! You can't just say this stuff.

[muscovy]

But it is the truth, yes? And people seem to be forgetting about it because being upset makes people silly and forget about important things. But they should find someone before everyone is in a different place, because if they wait they'll have less people to choose from.

[foundafamily]

M-maybe, but still! It's just--it's not...

[He gropes for a word that doesn't make him sound like an old fuddy-duddy. Predictably, it's rather hard to find. Because he is an old fuddy-duddy.]

You can't talk about that stuff. Especially not in public. There're ladies and kids around here!

[muscovy]

I am a child, yes? And even human children know about adults getting married and grandparents needing help because they're old, and parents having babies.

And women know more about having babies than men most of the time, and they like listening to love stories just like men, I think. [He takes no special interest in those, but he likes the gathering around that happens when there's a good storyteller and how lively all the people being together is, so he's heard his fair share of them.]

[foundafamily]

Uh, well, yeah, but...

[Damn, Muscovy makes some good points.]

You still can't tell other people to, you know, do all that stuff.

[muscovy]

But someone has to tell them, and nobody else is doing it, yes?

[Because they're obviously forgetting.]

[foundafamily]

Nobody has to tell 'em. Especially not you!

Look, if it's that important... People'll either go for it or they won't. You don't need to worry about 'em.

[muscovy]

But if they don't get married and have children they will die and there will be nobody left but the people who cannot die, yes? And that will be very lonely.

[Have they ever talked about this? Or that Rey told Muscovy that Firo is some kind of immportal, too?]

[foundafamily]

[Wait. Firo thinks he knows what brought this on now. His voice softens.]

...So you just want friends, huh?

[muscovy]

[He wants people to be reasonable for their own best. Because it would be silly not to. Why do people insist in hurting themselves by being stupid?

...But now that Firo says it, yes. That is a good point, too. He nods slowly.]

All of the other children will grow old and die.

[foundafamily]

Look...

That won't be for a while yet, you know, unless something big happens. You've still got 'em for now.

[muscovy]

Yes, but it will happen. Gavroche is very old already. And if people only try to start having children after everyone has gotten too old for it that will be very bad, yes?

[audio - un: longinface]

[tongueamok]

Somehow, the prospect of being married and having children isn't much better than that of being stuck here.

[muscovy]

[...maybe he was misunderstood.]

It isn't a decision between one or the other, yes? Being married and having children is what you do because you are stuck here.

[tongueamok]

[Carlisle thinks the same thing: perhaps he was misunderstood.]

I'm not interested in such pursuits, and even if I was, I'd likely not have the luxury of them.

[muscovy]

It isn't a luxury. It is making sure that you will have someone to look after you when you are old, yes? Or you will just be killed or die from starvation or freeze to death when you're old.

[tongueamok]

I'm probably going to die from something else long before that.

Look, I can't get married. I can marry others though, if anyone decides to entertain this notion.

[muscovy]

You shouldn't think like that. You should become stronger instead or find a boss who is stronger and can take care of you, yes?

...Are you a monk? [He's heard of those, met some, even.]

[tongueamok]

Something like that.

[That's not the reason he's not allowed to marry, but sure. That'll work.]

[muscovy]

[That makes Charlisle a bit less silly - Muscovy hadn't thought highly of him after their first encounter, but now he might have to rejudge him a bit. At least as an individual. Monks can be a bit weird in his experience, so maybe some of that can be chalked up to him being a monk.]

How long have you been a monk?

[tongueamok]

[Sigh. The ship has fallen off a cliff, they have no foreseeable way home, and here he is, explaining himself to a kid who pulled a dagger on him long, long ago. Desth, it feels like he's been here for ages.

But at least talking about himself means he isn't thinking about his impending demise, so that's something.]

Since I was about sixteen. Well, I started training at fourteen, but it was a few years until I became a full cleric. It was sixteen or seventeen -- I can't quite remember. A lot... happened right around then.

[muscovy]

[He nods. Yes, that makes sense - he actually doesn't know much about monks or priests, and this sounds like it could work that way.]

What happened then?

[tongueamok]

[He hesitates.]

What family I had left vanished. Went hunting and never returned.

[And that was just one of many, many problems that year.]

Audio UN: weatherwax

[atent_dead]

Well if ye lot insist, I'm a midwife.

[She's still a midwife if they don't, but then it's not really relevant]

[muscovy]

[That is awesome! Then hopefully less people will die in childbed or as little babies.]

Are you good?