Quest 136

[primrosella]

...Goodness, when I was baking for the party tonight, I wasn't expecting this many visitors. But it seems you're all here again, are you? It's not quite so nice as being able to visit home, of course, but it's always lovely to have visitors. And especially for the holidays!

Just not Lolotte, please, not her--not again...

Hello, everyone! Do come by to say hello, won't you? It's always such fun to see you and visit with you. And of course, you're welcome to stay for the party tonight, if you'd like! I'm sure it won't be any trouble at all.

...Well, unless we run out of snacks, but it's not as though it's difficult to make a few batches of cookies in a hurry. Speaking of which, I rather ought to get busy with that, shouldn't I?

And of course...if there's anyone here from the land of Daventry, please do stop in to say hello. It's been quite a while since I last heard word of home, and I'd be glad for any news.

...My, what a nice way to end October. I think perhaps it'll turn out to be a happy Halloween, after all.


[OOC: /copies and pastes As always: Canonically, she's from just after the end of Perils of Rosella, and with some very disjointed and vague knowledge of Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder. If something comes up that I don't want her to know, I'll just have her forget it, so have a party--anything goes! HIT HER WITH EVERYTHING YOU'VE GOT.

Also, muns, keeping in the spirit of Ye Olde Text-Based Adventure Games, that down below there? Is a command prompt. If you feel like 'directing' Rosella to carry out actions like "get bowl" or "open door", she might just feel compelled to respond...unless it's too complicated, in which you might get a fun error message instead. (Guaranteed acceptable commands include "get", "look", "open", "close", and "use".) Have fun!

And of course, I am totally okay with backdating.]

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Comments

[somekindofsin.livejournal.com]

Yes, well... as a rule, that somewhere is the imagination. Not that the Order doesn't see it's fair share of oddities!

Ah! That's quite the profession. It's a pleasure to meet a princess, truly. You're much kinder than Victoria.

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

I've found that there are a few too many coincidences between Daventry and other places for it to truly come from nothing but imagination, I think.

Why, thank you. Though I don't believe I've met a Princess Victoria. Is she from your world, perhaps?

[somekindofsin.livejournal.com]

There are a number of things that might explain that, but I would rather not discuss touchy matters like existence--or the lack thereof--with someone I've only met. You might think I'm entirely insane.

Queen Victoria, yes. She was the queen of England from 1837 until her death--1901, I believe, although that's after my time--and the namesake of the atrocious fashions of the late nineteenth century. She was a rather good queen, I think, although I didn't think much of her when a potion transformed her into a young lady. She was so preoccupied with my partner that she didn't so much as thank me for aiding in her rescue.

Erm. Not that I anticipated a reward of any kind.

I'm going on again. My apologies, really.

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

Oh, er...well, of course, yes, as you prefer.

No, no, it's quite all right, it's a lovely story. And you rescued her...from a tower? Or some other sort of danger?

[somekindofsin.livejournal.com]

From a deranged doctor-turned-murderer who wanted her eternal love, actually. His sentiments were acceptable enough, but going about murdering ladies in an attempt to preserve your love's youth isn't.

To be perfectly honest, I didn't do much rescuing.

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

Ugh! No, I should say not! Why, that's simply horrible!

[somekindofsin.livejournal.com]

He was a mad scientist. They tend to do things like that.

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

I've known one plenty of perfectly nice mad scientists, thank you very much, and they weren't the murderous sort at all.

[somekindofsin.livejournal.com]

Oh! Oh my. Terribly sorry! I've never met a mad scientist who wasn't entirely... mad. Not all of them are murderous, of course--well, Frankenstein never murdered anyone directly, to my knowledge--but they do cause a bit of trouble.

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

They do, but one doesn't have to be a mad scientist to cause trouble--or to get into it, for that matter. I think sometimes they're more silly than anything else, really. But who is Frankenstein?

[somekindofsin.livejournal.com]

True enough, yes. I wouldn't mind meeting a silly mad scientist.

Doctor Frankenstein was, among other things, a leading neurologist of the time--my time, that is--and, much to the chagrin of his associates, something of a graverobber as well. He made a remarkable machine that gave life to a creature made of corpses stitched together.

Quite nice, Frankenstein's monster. He had a saner brain than his creator, at any rate.

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

Ugh, machines. As though it weren't bad enough that he was raising the dead, but he used a machine to do it, too?

[somekindofsin.livejournal.com]

What? You prefer old-fashioned necromancy to scientific reanimation?

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

I'd prefer none of it at all. It just makes it worse that it's a machine that does it.

[somekindofsin.livejournal.com]

Yes, of course... none at all is the best option, that goes without saying.

Are you against all machines, then?

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

I've met more than enough zombies in my day, anyway. If I never meet another, it'll be too soon.

If by that you mean do I dislike them, then yes. They're unnatural.

[somekindofsin.livejournal.com]

Here, here.

Unnatural? Unnatural! Using penicillin as a medicine is unnatural, but should we stop using it to treat bacterial infections?

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

...Penicillin? What in the world is that?

[somekindofsin.livejournal.com]

You haven't--? Oh. Well. It's remarkable, really, but what I'm trying to say is that creating something new from nature isn't an evil thing. I'm something of a glorified mechanic myself, and I've known machinery to do a great deal of good if used properly.

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

But it's just--

The gears and...things...it just feels so wrong, looking at it. Doesn't it turn your stomach, all of it?

[somekindofsin.livejournal.com]

[If it takes Carl a while to answer, it's just because he can't imagine not adoring gears and things.]

No. No, it doesn't. It's--erm. I suppose it's not beautiful in the way that... oh, a sunset might be, but have you ever truly examined a piece of machinery? Even a simple gear. There's order and symmetry to it, and every aspect of it has a purpose. There are no superfluous parts, no unpleasant surprises, no chaotic messes...

It's an acquired taste, I imagine.

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

A sunset would be natural. There's nothing natural about machines.

Just--the most abhorrent thing you can imagine. The most hideous, unnatural obscenity you can possibly fathom--imagine that, and you'll know how I feel when I think of machines. I have a friend who prefers machines over magic, too. Like you do, I think. For him, it's black magic that makes his stomach twist that way, so perhaps it is for you, too. But for me, it's machines.

[somekindofsin.livejournal.com]

Ah. I see.

Is it simple enough to steer away from machines? You seem quite comfortable with the network device.

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

The Network device isn't really a machine, though. I know it's not really magic making it work, but I do know it's more magic than machine. How could a machine possibly manage the things it does?

[somekindofsin.livejournal.com]

Perhaps there's a touch of magic, but the bast majority of it can be explained. Of course, even the 'magic' may have an explanation. Something that can't be explained by science may well have a scientific explanation waiting to be discovered.

The City's different, naturally. Nothing works the way it ought to here.