Dramatis personae:
Echo strolls along, head up and smiling softly.
Volarian gestures encompasingly with a detail-hand, "Just about anything one could encode information in, I expect. A great deal of it though, so I'd suspect some complex object, or perhaps several."
Volarian's spectrum cycles up to white and back again when she notices Echo.
Camilla bows from hir kneeling position. "Hello.
Echo says, "Ah, hello."
Camilla turns back to Volarian. "Well, if your memories could look like anything, then I can't say if I've seen them or not."
Echo says, "I've seen many lost memories."
Camilla's ears flick. Shi frowns at the fox. "Echo? Is that you?"
Echo says, "Yes."
Volarian flickers, "True, even if you restrict the field to high information-density items."
Echo says, "I should say that most of the memories I've seen haven't been disguised."
Camilla blushes.
Volarian shifts towards green and shuffles her feet somewhat
Echo seems to have left a copy of herself walking somewhere. That Echo turns and waves before hopping into a Charmtube.
Camilla blinks?
Echo sits. "Do you mind my intrusion here?"
Camilla says, "I certainly don't. I was attempting to discuss with .. Volarian, was it? .. With Volarian about memories."
Volarian has made her way to yellow again. "Volarian it was, and I don't mind."
Echo nods, and sips some tea.
Camilla ohs. "There's tea? I didn't know there was tea."
Camilla's eyes widen with hope. n.n
Echo says, "Teas of many kind and capability."
Camilla says, "Black ginseng tea?"
Echo offers a clay drinking bowl, which has just that within, at an appropriate temperature.
"Thank you." Camilla takes the bowl in both hands, and sips.
Volarian's spider-mechanical beeps, displaying power and fuel levels significantly below normal.
Volarian crackles, "It was nice to meet you two. Oxidise well."
Camilla says, "Um... you too?"
Volarian's spectrum cycles down to the near infrared, and back again.
Echo says, "Best."
Volarian flares brightly, "Thank you."
Volarian touches the transit mirror and vanishes.
Camilla sips hir tea. "How are you doing, Echo?"
Echo says, "I'm doing well." She sips. "You?"
Camilla says, "I should say much better. I'm able to tolerate Charm. :)"
Echo says, "That's good."
Echo smiles warmly, gesturing with her cup. "This place, it's all shiny and plasticky, but there are real people underneath it all."
Camilla says, "There's also electrical discharges and uncontrolled emissions, quite unruly."
Echo says, "Enthusiasm, dear. Nobody's hurt by it, at least not here."
Camilla bows hir head. "Not usually, no."
Echo offers a plate of biscuits.
Camilla reaches quickly, then stops hirself, and blushes again. "Thank you," she mutters, then takes.
Echo smiles. "Even the wild and irrational have their manners sometimes." She nods to a teddy bear, and refills his cup.
Camilla nibbles. "When I first came here, I found mastication repulsive." Another bite, then a larger one, then shi ravenously consumes it.
Echo daintily licks a sugar cube. "How were you sustained before then?"
Camilla licks crumbs from hir lips, and fingers. "My schooling says it's the cosmic flow. I don't know what that means, though. I suspect it was more ambient energy."
Camilla looks at the biscuit tray with wistful eyes, fingers tucked in hir sleeves.
Echo says, "Your schooling seems terribly dramatic. It might well be cosmic flow, but ambient energy does cover the topic well enough. -Go ahead, dear, have some more."
Camilla sighs. "I'm getting fat." Shi hangs hir head.
Echo says, "Looks more to me like you're growing into maturity."
"That's sweet of you to say." Camilla beams. "You've been very sweet, you know. I wish I could reciprocate."
Echo has another biscuit, herself, and pats the teddy bear's mouth with a napkin. "Thank you, dear. Goodnight! And thank you, Camilla." The toy gets up and waddles off.
Camilla says, "Is ... is it right to do this?"
Echo says, "To do what? Have a tea party? It's appropriate for the Warp, certainly."
Camilla says, "No. To ... alter myself like this. I'm worried what I might become. Of course, I'm still worried what I was supposed to be."
Camilla puts hir hands on hir knees, and smiles, eyes closed, head bowed. "I suppose I worry a lot."
Echo says, "Worry is often an expression of fear. I suppose it's natural to fear for yourself, not yet knowing what you are."
Camilla says, "I suppose I'm afraid of a lot of things, too."
Echo smiles, setting her empty cup on the tablecloth. "It's okay to be afraid. That's not to say that fearfulness gets you anywhere, but you knew that."
Camilla says, "Echo, you've been both a man and a woman. Why?"
Echo says, "Part of exploring who I am, and how I feel about myself and others. Gender.. it's been flexible for me, really. I always knew that one direction was attractive to me, but my own was irrelevant."
Camilla didn't recognize your scion earlier, so shi has no comment on that. "And what have you discovered?"
Echo says, "What I just told you. And many more things besides, but they're all connected. It's a lot of territory."
Camilla says, "I suppose it is. .. I might have hundreds of years to explore it all. I worry I'm doing something rash."
Echo says, "You'll find a proper time to commit yourself to something. Over many cycles and passings, even the inflexible may bend."
Camilla bows hir head. "I should like to ask you for a favor, then. I realize it's a bit presumptuous."
Echo says, "Ask, and we'll see."
Camilla takes a deep breath. "If I were to give you ... my egg, would you see that it's well cared for?"
Echo says, "Certainly.. but how would you prefer its care to be focused?"
Camilla says, "Well ... to make sure that it hatches, I would guess. Gracious, I don't know how it long it would take. It might take hundreds of years, even thousands."
Echo says, "I could shuffle through the cards and see just how long a good hatching might take."
Camilla looks up. "Cards? I don't follow."
Echo says, "A metaphor, a reference to Tarot and the timestream."
"Oh." Camilla rumble-chuckles. "I'd always heard it as reading the trigrams."
Echo says, "Ah. Yes, or casting runes. There are many forms of divination."
Camilla bows hir head again. "Is it right for me to reproduce?"
Echo says, "I don't see that it's terribly wrong."
Camilla says, "I just don't know. I'm strongly conflicted. How can I release a child into this world when I don't know what it would be, or who would raise it?"
Echo says, "Ojou, Shinsei. Roque. GrayZero, Mel, I. Your child would be here in the Mess, amongst friends and a wonderful offering from the Puzzlebox... and the Cube Tree loves us, all of us. Even if bodily backups don't work for you, there are still ways for you to help raise a child."
Camilla says, "Gracious. I feel like it's a horrible imposition. And .. thank you."
Echo smiles. "It is responsibility, but that's no problem. Family is a flexible thing here; I'll find others who can help when I can't."
Camilla says, "Oh. Um, I don't want to make a big deal about this. I'm not sure it's even something I can do."
Echo laughs as she re-folds the tablecloth and napkins. "You asked me; I'm glad that you trust me so much. If you're having second thoughts, please, share them."
"I have second thoughts about everything. Sometimes third thoughts." Camilla reflexively reaches over to help clean up. "There's issues involved. Gestation. Ovipositing. Incubation. And ... well... clean living."
Echo says, "Clean living. How do you define that in the land of ten billion sins?"
The mirror-blob swells into a pregnant sphere and then bursts to release Slight.
The mirror-blob swells into a pregnant sphere and then bursts to release Reginald.
Reginald bows. "Good evening."
Slight waves cheerfully to everyone. "Hello!"
Echo says, "Hello, folks." The various accoutrements of high tea vanish. Except for the plate of biscuits, one of which is given to a passing mouse with very cute eyes.
Camilla says, "Hello, hello."
Reginald says, "You are all well, I hope?"
Camilla is kneeling, watching the mouse run. Shi reaches up towards Slight.
Slight shakes her head to clear it. "I need a vacation from all of this running around and trying to keep up with everyone. It's wearing me thin." She steps over and takes Camilla's hand, squeezing it for a moment before kneeling down next to the dragon.
Reginald chuckles quietly at the feline. "You do not have to attempt to do so, dear woman. There are other things you can do."
Camilla smiles, then folds hir hands back in hir sleeves, and nuzzles up to Slight's cheek. "So you're reconsidering the leash, then? That way, you could follow me around at my leisure."
Slight giggles, and returns the nuzzle, purring quietly. "The leash need be nothing more than a trapping; should you wish to command me to do something I think I would often do it gladly. And if I decide to be recalcitant...then perhaps you may play with the leash."
Echo just shakes her head tolerantly. "Games and games."
Reginald chuckles at Echo. "What else would you expect?"
"I command you to rub my ears, then." Camilla is tough but fair.
Slight reaches around, and takes one of Camilla's ears in each hand, rubbing from the tips down to the base, in small circling motions between her fingers and her thumb.
Echo says, "If you'll excuse me, I should catch up with myself. Good eve to you all, and thank you for a wonderful teatime, Camilla."
Reginald nods to Echo. "I believe I'll take a walk, myself."
Camilla mrrrs.. then blinks, and quickly stands. "Thank you, Echo." Shi extends both hands. "I should like to meditate onwhat we talked about. I hope you will be in touch."
Reginald bows, then makes his way through the mirror.
Reginald touches the transit mirror and vanishes.
Slight follows the dragon up, though her hands slip from Camilla's ears. She smiles, and offers a small wave to each of the people leaving.
Echo reaches out to touch hands with Camilla. "No worries." She smiles, and is gone.