Scene Archives

claps as the curtain drops over the rearing, mechanical fiend-horse, all clockwork and brass, and the two women riding off into the starlight—under the Solider-and-Brother, of course. The theatre is crowded—packed, really, though she and Aurelius have a private box. Most of the crowd below is not just standing and clapping but outright yelling, which she guesses is probably standard? She glances to Aurelius and fiddles with the hem of her dress—a dusky pink silk cut dangerously short, with an open back. “So. What did you think?”

didn’t think this was going to be the sort of thing you’d really need to dress up for - and indeed he did not, though maybe the novellity of his new outfit hasn’t worn off yet…? All things considered he was probably right, too. He’s clapping, if not a enthusiastically as most of the rest of the crowd. He does look amused though! “Pretty fun. Did you know there used to be a much older version of this where they died in the end instead of fooling everyone and making off with the horse and the gold? Goddess, that must’ve sucked.”

doesn’t know what Aurelius is thinking—she wouldn’t be rude and read his narration text like that!—but if he’s at all concerned about not dressing up, he needn’t be. He looks amazing as he is. She, however, is enjoying the opportunity to wear a decidedly impractical dress and heels, and a long, flowing lace duster jacket in a complimentary oxblood red. “Oh, Light, yeah I—“ she frowns a little. “Well, I could see that working, but it’s not … really what I’d want to do for a date, you know?”

: “Hahaha, yeah. Naw, it’s way better this way!”

grins at him, just, beams. “What did you think of the explosions? I actually—this will sound silly, but they almost seemed real. I expected a Rite to trigger at any moment.” Theatre on Almachadta decidedly lacks any pyrotechnics.

: “Oh. They are real. There’s. Actually an entire ass branch of art-science dedicated to making things get set on fire and/or blow up in cool ways for show, here. Those fireworks they set off the other night are just a small part of it.”

blinks, and then laughs. “That’s amazing. That’s …” she shakes her head. “So unnecessary? And wonderful because it’s unnecessary?” She watches as the people below them start to file out, and shoots a glance at him. “Want to get out of here and grab something to eat?” They had dinner but she could use a snack, and Aurelius is … pretty much always willing to eat food.

: “Yeah sure, they don’t usually like people sticking around long enough to watch them do clean up anyway.”

nods and reaches for his hand. The crush of people has dissipated a little bit, and she strictly speaking probably doesn’t need to hold his hand, but. It’s a date!

is perfectly willing to hold onto her hand, and it won’t even be terribly hard to navigate towards some street vendors selling food that only needs a single hand, either.

absolutely beams at him again. Her face is starting to hurt she’s been smiling so much, which is a little ridiculous. But she’s here, alive, in Queenstown, on a date! With Aurelius! Who is smiling and laughing and enjoyed the play! “I actually was going to propose … there’s a late-night comfort foot place, not fancy at all, not on Spice Row, and they serve all sorts of things that sounded like your kind of thing—biscuits and gravy, fried chicken, chicken and … waffles? Which sounds strange but might be good? When I was on the tram the other day someone started raving about and it seemed like it could be nice.”

: “Depends on how much you list sweet and salt…” He considers for a moment, then nods. “Sure, everyone can use a little breakfast for dinner now and then.”

squeezes his hand and leads him toward the place—it’s nearby, a couple streets and then tucked into an alley. She absolutely scoped it out earlier. It seems like that kind of place that, on another world, might have garish lighting and unpleasant sticky seating, the but the booths here are smooth, nicely-worked leather and the lighting is pleasantly diffuse. They’re told to seat themselves, and Salme picks a both towards the back, tugging Aurelius after her. “So did you have any other thoughts?”

: “Kind of surprised that was your pick, if I’m honest. Figured you’d have asked for something a little more… subdued.”

: “Well, I asked Saranzaya for several recommendations but—“ she pauses, and makes a bit of a face. “I’ve read one of the books she recommended and—so a lot of her recommendations were very well-received, but they were also.” She studies him for a moment. “There was a lot of sapphic longing. Which, obviously, this play had as well, but I wanted something we’d both enjoy, and this one wasn’t a drama or a tragedy.”

: “Aaah, fair enough.”

blushes a bit. “That wasn’t terribly coherent, but. You didn’t seem like you’d enjoy subdued, sad gay women?”

: “Not to insult Zaya’s taste.”

: “If i’m going to dedicate an hour and a half of my life to watching a play I’d generally leans towards them being exciting rather than, ah, contemplative, yes.”

: “Yeah, if you want contemplative you’re going to climb a wall and stare at the scenery for at least five hours.”

: “Right, exactly.”

grins at him. The waiter comes by and she does not order the chicken and waffles, because when she reads the menu description she decides it sounds appalling. She does order a reasonable amount of fried chicken though—spicy, of course.

gets an order of biscuits and gravy, some hashbrowns, and a huge jug of orange juice.

: “So aside from being surprised at my taste, did you have any particular thoughts? I thought the actress who place Julija was very striking—it’d be easy to make her passive, especially compared to Rymma, but they felt very equal?”

: “One of the side benefits of making the ending not suck! Gives both of the protagonist more room to do their things. Personally I was impressed with the gnosis work that went into making some of the chase scenes through the crowds read well upon stage. Sort of makes you wonder what things might look like if the stage was absurdly large instead, like the size of an area or something.”

nods. “Oh, that could be interesting. Instead of it being sort of a flat area it was … hm, you could have basically the stage interwoven with the audience? Oh—speaking of which, the sky. That was amazing. They managed to make the sky look exactly like the real sky on the Beast.” Frowns for a moment. Wobbles her hand. “Well, ‘real’ sky. But I liked how the constellations changed to reflect the theme of a given scene.”

nods. “Yeah, I know what you mean. Really good projection work, even if it’s ‘just’ copying sometimes.”

: “And it was funny to boot.” The waiter brings their food, and she snags a sip of his orange juice before he even gets a chance to sample it himself.

: “You could have just ordered one your self, you know.”

: “Yeah but I didn’t think to and I wanted to try it first.” She will, the next time the waiter comes by.

: “Rude.”

: “Well, yeah, but you told me to just be myself around you.”

: “Sometimes ‘being myself’ means being rude.”

: “That was before you outed yourself as a Drink Bandit.”

laughs. “Is that a bridge too far, Aurelius tou Asilos, Second of His Name? Must we have a Rite about it?”

: “Mmmhm. Pistols at dawn, just like in the play! … Because dinner is to be had now.”

nods solemnly. “Pistols at dawn, then.” She squeezes his hand and … begins, somehow, to eat her chicken one-handed, though if Aurelius does want his hand back she’ll cope.

: “So are parties on the Beast actually Like That? If you have the memories to support it one way or another. I get the sense Annarr was kind of a weird guy.”

can probably make do with one hand an a fork, even if it’s not… terrible practical when JUICE TIME comes into play, but he’ll live. “No, absolutely not. Like, sure you’ll get your assholes in charge of uptight idiots from time to time, but mostly people are… sane? Like anywhere else we’ve been, really. Someone thinking about moving to another Clan might spark some tears, or begging to reconsider or maybe some light grudges, but it erupting into something like that… Zaya’s too good at her job for that to ever be a thing.”

: “Oh, I mostly meant—you know, the party where they meet? With all the costumes and the … glitter? Is that the word? I figured the inter-Clan drama was played up.” She thinks, briefly, about what a Beast without Zaya to manage things would be like, and quickly shunts the thought away.

: “Oh, party-party, not, party-clan. Okay. Yeah, no I wouldn’t say costume parties are… the standard? Something that happens every so often, but isn’t really common perse. Normal ones are a lot more… well kind of like that cookout we had? Maybe with a few bards and minstrels around if they’re feeling fancy or wanna dance more than they wanna eat.”

is managing her meal very well one-handed, but she scootches closer because she can. It’s a date. She’s going to act like a teenager with her first crush! No one can stop her! (Well, Aury could, if he wants to, and he will, if he wants to, but he hasn’t yet). “Do you dance?” she asks.

: “About as well as any idiot that doesn’t care what they look like when they’re drunk, I suppose?”

laughs a little. “That was one of the answers I could see you giving. The other would be, of course, you have a secret skill at dancing that’s just never come up.” She eats another little bite of her chicken, which is fried to crispy, spicy, slightly greasy perfection. “Second question—if you had to attend a costume party, what would you dress up as?”

: “Maybe I am, but. Hmm. I don’t know, easy answer’s probably a lion, right?”

: “Sure. But you’ve got a lot of wacky memories rolling around in there and you’re brilliant yourself. I think you could come up with something more fun.”

considers herself, and then says, “though to be fair, my brain just provided ‘sexy lightdrinker’ and nothing else, so I suppose I can’t fault you.”

: “Yeah. Yeah I’m sticking with Lion I think.”

: “Now a cowardly one, though?”

frowns. “I don’t know where that came from. Is that a reference?”

: “Probably, but not one I am personally familiar with. Also no.”

mouth twists a little, and she’s brought back down to reality, just a bit. “It’s not the same, because obviously Jorule is a whole person, but … the … memories in your head that aren’t yours. Any suggestions for dealing with that? I mean, mine’s mostly poetry and information, and the poetry’s—fine, really. I’ve forgotten more poetry than I can remember. The information is a little … it’s disorienting, I think. Sometimes. A lot of the time.”

: “I mean, I deal with ‘em by accepting that they’re there and pulling from them when necessary… so… I guess no, not really? Not if they bug you, at least. The background noise has always been there for me those so it’s kinda whatever.”

: “I just worry I’m not … me? Or I’m becoming less myself? It’s like … ugh, this is a horrible topic for a date.” She rests her head on his shoulder, or at least, on the pauldron the protects his shoulder. “Sorry. I really. I really, really want to get this right.”

pokes her in the forehead with the back of his fork gently. “It’s fine, topics wonder, and it’s not like there’s anyone else to ask about that. Don’t worry so much or feel like you gotta try too hard.”

nods, a little bit. She takes a sip of her own giant jug of orange juice which was delivered conveniently just now. “Sometimes I just don’t sound like me and I don’t like it. And it’s … you know … or, Light, maybe you don’t, but have you seen that NotACrane posting on the linkpearl?”

: “Haven’t really looked at it much, but yeah, seen that it’s happening. Didn’t sound like something I needed to worry about?”

shakes her head. “No. He’s … Wolf’s Jorule, I think? I’ve talked with him a bit. I like him—he’s. Well, you know. Spark aspects. Alike but different.” She shrugs. “But he has a story that he’s from, he’s … also a person. Mine. Whatever mine is, they aren’t … like that.”

: “I don’t know. It didn’t really used to bug me that much until Jorule called it out one time, when I suddenly knew stuff about space that I really shouldn’t. And … it felt weird and bad.”

: “Hmm… so not just the mask memory, but the other stuff?”

: “Yes. The Mask memory is … it’s whatever. It’s a part of me. I don’t think … a couple times, I got caught. In a bit of a loop. Early on. Where I could quite …” she bites her lip. “So, early on with the Mask, I was trying to approximate out the cycle-lengths, and that meant looking at the end of all things over and over again, and it was. Probably not wise, and after diving like that remembering I was here, in the now—that was hard. But I got used to that. I don’t confuse the Mask’s memories for my own. With … the bird bullshit, I sometimes will say things, or know things, that I absolutely shouldn’t, and it’s weird and unsettling.”

: “It’s mostly useful or … funny stuff, but it is weird and unsettling.”

: “Oh. Yeah. I mean, that’s fair. But worst comes to worst, if it really bugs you… then just ignore the little impulse that those thought send you and don’t act on ‘em, y’know?”

snorts, ungracefully. “Well, yeah, but I think the worst is that I don’t even realize them until after I’ve said them. Or written them. Or whatever.”

adds, a little quieter, “I still seem like myself to you, right?”

: “You do. I mean, you’re a little more giddy and touchy feely than normal, but that’s still… you, I’m pretty sure.”

blushes, then, like she thought she was fooling anyone. “Oh. Yeah. No. That’s me. Because we’re on a date, you know. And I decided to stop … trying to play it cool, and pretend like going on a date with you didn’t make me feel like an excited teenager.” She straightens back up and eats another bite of chicken.

is still blushing, but she shrugs with a mouth full of delicious fried chicken so she doesn’t have to say anything else at the moment.

: “It’s been a nice night, yes.”

swallows her chicken. Hesitates. Finally says, “You know. I spend a lot of time talking with people via linkpearl—which, thank you for that by the way—and … well, you wouldn’t know because I don’t think you’re the kind of person who’d read private messages, but a lot of it is about you.” ⁂

takes a sip of orange juice. “Not. About problems. Though I’ve asked for advice about things when I’ve struggled to figure stuff out, yeah. But. There’s a lot of gushing about … you. And I don’t say it to your face because I’m always worried it’s going to be embarrassing, though I think I’m mostly bringing that to the table. Awa—I can gush to him, it’s fine, he’s just—well, you know what he’s like. But you—“ ⁂

: “And I guess I’m trying to be … more open? About it? And express how I feel, especially when I’m happy with you? Light knows you help me when I’m upset often enough. I’m still a little nervous that I’m going to be too weird and intense about things, but,” she shrugs. “I don’t really know where I was going with this.” 🙧

: “I enjoy spending time with you like this too, Salme. It’s nice seeing you enjoy yourself without getting lost in your head, and, I will admit it does feel nice being subjected to all this affection from you from time to time.”

blushes harder, and smiles—at her plate of chicken, which she realizes is ridiculous, so she looks up at smiles at him. Just absolutely, completely glowing. If she wasn’t fairly good at controlling gnosis at this point, she’d probably just be tossing flourishing around all over the place. “Thank you.” And then she adds, “You know, the last time I was flipping out at you, you said something about how my ‘heart is large and my desires immense.’ I have something I want to say about that, but I wanted to ask what you meant by that in case I had misunderstood?”

: “It means you’re capable of a lot of love, a lot more than the average person, I think, with how easily you reach out and befriend strangers. And you want so much, for everyone, even if you sometimes forget to include yourself in there.”

relaxes a bit, and nods. “Okay. I just … hm. I wanted to make sure you know that you come first? I mean. Obviously ‘saving the world’ comes first, but. I was a bit worried, that you might think … that you were just one among many to me. And I do love a lot of people, easily and very intensely, but.” She slants a look at him. “Did you know, here on the Beast, this is really the first time anyone’s ever flirted with me? Well. Anyone who wasn’t secretly a teenage scumbag. And it’s been nice. I enjoyed it, even. But it’s made things clearer and clearer—it’s you and Awa, and you two come first. And all of the other people I love, who matter to me—it isn’t that I love them less, but I want. I guess I need you to understand how special you are to me.” She laughs a little. “I’ve been working on some poetry about it—nothing I’m comfortable sharing yet, but. Yeah.”

listens carefully as she talks, even stopping to eat to make sure she knows he’s listening, then nods slowly. “So and duly noted. I will keep that forever in my mind, Salme, don’t worry.”

: “Also,” she does turn to look at him fully, reaching up to touch his nose with her finger, “I realized how hard you’ve been working to be a good partner to me. And it means … a lot. So much.” She draws her hand away and lifts his hand that she’s still holding, and kisses each finger. “I—every time I realize you’ve done something, it really … I’m really happy with you. That said. I actually think you’re pretty cute when you’re cranky? So that’s also not … something you ever need to hide from me.”

: “I don’t think I’ve been trying to hide it, for what it’s worth. It just doesn’t come up a lot because you’re usually great and no one we hang out with sucks.”

laughs at the implications of that. “Well, okay. Fair enough. Just wanted to say it.”

is mostly done with her meal, and has made a fairly sizeable dent in her jug of orange juice. “I didn’t really have a plan after post-play food. Is there … I mean, we can always go back to the inn, but … I’m kind of not ready for the night to be over yet?”

: “Hmm…”

: “Nothing really comes to mind… it’s not like there’s much difference between night and day here. … Or on Almachadta. Or Samudra. Huh.”

: “Yeah, going out to the lake is probably an entirely different, separate activity so… Well. I suppose there’s always wandering around town, or maybe riding the tram line that loops around the parameter of the city, take in more of the sights before we leave? They’re a bit less crowded at night, at least.”

: “Oh. I didn’t know there was a tram that looped around the city. I’d like that a lot.”

: “I … am going to miss being here, in a city of this size. I miss a lot of things about Almachadta, but I didn’t expect to love the Beast as much as I do.”

: “I did.”

: “You expected to love the Beast? Or you expected me to love it?”

: “You too, dork.”

smiles a bit. “I still remember when … early on, when we first got here, you started just … pontificating about how now I would surely understand how magnificent the Beast was, and why you had been so underawed by everything Almachadta had to offer. I think you got interrupted halfway through, but. It was cute. And … well. I think I could find beautiful things to show you on Almachadta, given less existential despair and a bit more time, but you weren’t wrong either.”

: “Haha. Yeah, that’s fair I suppose. Not like we really explored much of either world, honestly.”

waves down the waiter and pays the bill with the … sizeable amount of lucre she’s been given by Zaya. “I still kind of want to see where the sea stops making sense in Samudra.”

hesitates a moment. “You know. I know … the worlds were all once one, right? And obviously we might make them one again. But … maybe this is selfish, or stupid, but aside from the world-ending catastrophes they go through, I kind of … like how weird and wondrous they are like this? Which isn’t really a ‘we shouldn’t do what we’re doing’ but it is a ‘I want to enjoy all their strangeness while that strangeness is still around to be enjoyed’?”

: “I mean, they’re here, and we’re here, regardless so… no sense in not enjoying it while it last?”

’s eyes spark at that, and she smiles. “Yes. That. Exactly.” And she kisses him on his jaw, pausing briefly to rest her head on his shoulder and then says, “lead the way to the tram?”

: “Certainly, m’dear.” He steps out first, offering his hand again (since, surely, she did not pay with one hand only like a lunatic), before leading to two of them back into the less crowded night night.