tushanshu | Summer 01

Entry tags:

Summer 01

[when it clicks on, have a face full of dirty red headed kid. She looks absolutely delighted by the fact that the console works, and her words seal the deal]

Holy shit, this thing really works?! This is so fucking cool! So, I turned this on and everyone else can hear me, right? This thing’s like a mass phone call or… Oh, wait. Is this what it was like being on TV?

[she pulls out a book from her backpack]

Well, I’m reading a book about anti- gravity… It’s impossible to put down. Pfff. Okay, okay, I won’t read my good ol’ pun book to everyone, but if you ever need a joke, let me know.

Also, I’m looking for someone. His name’s Joel, he’s kind of older, brown hair, talks with a pretty thick Texas accent.

And if anyone knows where I can find a bunch of books in English, that’d be awesome. Last place I went to, they were all in this fucking weird script! No good if you wanna actually read something, you know?

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Fungus.

[she nods a bit]

Fungus.

They did it to stop the spread... didn't work so well, but, you know. They tried!

I am not sure I take your meaning: do you mean the fungus spread across the city, like a mold?

[He knows how things spoil, on a ship; perhaps that is what she means, and his visions of a plague are entirely unfounded.]

No... they did it to kill the people that had caught it. It doesn't do much to everything else, not even monkeys.

[His ruff flattens again at the words, and he lowers his head a little. So that was what she meant, after all: she is from some world where something not dissimilar to the dragon plague struck people, instead.]

I am very sorry to hear it: something very similar happened to the dragons in England, where I am from, but we were able to find a cure, in time; I cannot imagine what it would be like, if we had not.

[CURE. HA HA HA, CURE. So many complicated feelings about a cure]

... Yeah, they haven't found one, as far as I know. I hope that changes soon.

[He would tell you to try eating mushrooms to fix it but...fungus...]

As do I, Ellie. [He pauses, uncertain, then ventures:] You were not exposed to the fungus yourself, then?

[does Joel's warning really apply here? She hesitates at the feed and then]

One sec.

That should do it...

Okay, don't tell anyone but-- I was. I'm the only immune person they've ever seen. It's been months since I was bit and... nothing.

Me and my partner were trying to find some people looking for the cure.

[Eyes widening:] Then you must be very important, must you not? And you are not contagious, yourself? [Hurriedly:] Not that I am suggesting that you bite anyone, of course.

If I tried to bite someone, they'd shoot me, so not gonna try to test that theory out unless someone pisses me off.

[or worse.]

But yeah... I am kind of important, if it works. I don't think there's much hope for the people already infected, but maybe we can save people from becoming infected.

Well, if it is of any help, guns are difficult to find on the turtle, unless one was brought here with you.

I do not know how much the kedan have told you about how time works here, but I do not think you need to worry on that account: it stops when you arrive, I think, so if your friend is not here, he will not notice you are missing.

Yeah, I've got a gun... and a few other things. You don't think I'll need them here...?

And what if-- what if I'm dead right now? All I remember is drowning. It's possible, right?

Oh, I do not mean that, at all: it can be quite dangerous here, if you go to the wrong sorts of places, and of course there is the real reason we are all here, which likely means we shall all be fighting, by and by. I only mean to say you are less likely to be shot, than stabbed, or beaten. [So reassuring, Temeraire.

But--oh. Another child who thinks they might be dead, in their own world: that is something he would rather not consider, particularly so soon after Gavroche's disappearance.]

Well, it is not outside the realm of possibility, [he concedes grudgingly.] There are some people here who have died, and arrived here, or so they say: the Emperor has that power, I suppose.

[she stares at the feed for a moment and then laughs]

Has anyone told you that you're super reassuring Temeraire? Because, wow. Don't worry, I can handle myself! Well, around any normal person anyway. There are some not normal people here too, right?

[A little defensively:] I certainly did not mean to discourage you; I simply do not see the point in lying about it.

[But he brightens soon after. This is an exciting thing to talk about!] Oh, there are a great many people here with strange abilities: mutants, and benders, and sorcerers, who can do all sorts of things, which I thought only existed in books.

[Says the dragon, but you know.]

[She just grins at the rest of his statement, staring at the console with unabashed glee at all the new things she was hearing about, even if he got huffy over her teasing]

And what on earth is a bender?

As I understand it, they are people who can manipulate elements: not the scientific sort of elements, but things like water, fire, earth, and air, by moving their arms and legs. I had a waterbender on my crew, before he vanished: he showed me, a few times.

[At the mention of the waterbender in question he droops a little--it has been a while since he has heard anything of Noatak. It is very annoying, how frequently his crew disappears these days.]

So they have super powers, huh. They just call it something different.

Wait, wait, you have a crew? What do you and your crew do?

[benders temporarily forgotten, after that brief explanation]

Oh, well, it is nothing so large as what I have in England: there I have forty men at least: officers and riflemen and runners, not counting my ground-crew. We are all of us in the Royal Aerial Corps, and we fight against Napoleon and Lien and the French, who are trying to take over all of Europe at present.

[And, because he is roughly the size of a small bus at present, and his reduced stature might give her reason to doubt him:] I am normally much larger, at least three times this size: they have shrunk me, you see. Here my crew is--well, it is harder to maintain, when people come and go so often, but we fly drills and hold ourselves ready, as I might at home, in case it should ever come to a fight.

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Summer 01

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