trustfell | it's not unusual to have fun with anyone

it's not unusual to have fun with anyone

[ The ballroom's a little swanky for a simple get-together like this, but...

Well, actually, judging by what you see when you come in at the appointed time (or even before that, but Aligula'll be huffy if you do!?), what was advertised is not exactly what's going on. Continuing her war on paper, Aligula's put up origami hearts (or her attempts at them; she got better as she figured out what she was doing, but they're not the best) pretty much everywhere. There's also sheets taped to every wall with encouraging things in her curly-cute script like GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER! and FIND A PARTNER! and WELCOME TO SPEED-DATING!

...Yeah, welcome to speed-dating.

There's a lot of chairs paired together, presumably for the whole "partnering up" thing, and everyone anywhere near the ballroom will be getting a sheet of questions titled SUGGESTED TALKING POINTS. There at least seems to be food like she promised? At least... there's signs pointing to the dining room across the wall to suggest it, and entering the dining room gets you hot chocolate (and water, if you're boring, as well treating you to the sight of a parfait bar, with various cups and glasses to stand in for actual parfait glasses. There's also things for making sandwiches—she pretty much grabbed whatever she could think of from the fridge and such—and of course, plates and utensils and etc.

And if none of that's appetizing then, like, kitchen's not that far, go make something yourself. She put a lot of work into this whole thing but especially the parfait bar because she loves parfait and everyone can have fun making those.

If you don't think your character would've come without a little help, don't worry; even if Aligula can't bodily drag everyone, she sure can bother them aggressively until they come just to get her to leave them alone. All in all, don't sweat the small stuff and have a good time getting to know each other! Or go sulk and play the piano, whatever. ]

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Harrowing, honestly.

[ She says it with wry humor in her voice ]

It's easy to look back on it now as some sort of pulp adventure - nearly hitting rocks, sleeping below deck, the people I met and bonded with there... but at the time, it was frightening. So many days it felt like I might not see another shore, and the whole time it was obvious none of us would see our homelands again. Honestly, the first leg of it I was content to be the lady I was raised as, but I stepped in during the later part, pulling sails, trying to help navigate, the likes.

It sounds harrowing, yes. Just the same, it seems the sort of thing that's...beneficial, in a way, to have undergone. Something that would teach you things about yourself and what you're capable of, in a way that most other things can't. They show you where your strength is.

[He shrugs a little.]

I've always thought there's something to be said for experiences like that, I suppose. It likely comes with my line of work.

[ She just nods. Honestly, she doesn't disagree - that boat ride (and what prompted it) made her the woman that she is today, showed her the strength that she has so much pride in now. But even so... she'd give that up in a heartbeat if she could have allowed her children and grandchildren to see the stately castle she was raised in. To allow Henry the chance to have met her father, to haven known her younger brother lived to see his fifteenth birthday.

So she can't say her conviction is absolute, not really.

Instead, she tilts her head, not really missing a beat when she asks: ]

I thought alchemists were more the sort to be in a lab or at the side of kings and queens.

[ Then again, war was on his likes. ]

[Ah, right, that...]

It's fairly common for alchemists to keep to their own private practices and research, yes, of course, but those of us employed by the State tend to be soldiers, or at least our alchemy is combat-oriented in some way.

I'm not an exception to this, I was in the military for a good long while.

Alchemy for war... the likes of chemical weapons?

[ She's still picturing like. chemistry with more mystic stuff. Some John Dee shit. ]

I suppose, at its core, that that's what most of it is. But it can be used for other things; explosions and the creation and projection of fire, as well as producing more solid weapons and barriers if given enough materials to do so.

In the conditions of a battlefield though? That's amazing, the military must have to draft the best.

That's more or less the idea, yes.

[...he is an arrogant fuckhead i don't even]

Golly. Did you have to study a lot for that?

I've been studying alchemy since I was a child, though it took me quite a while to become proficient. So for most of my life, give or take a few years.

Huh, that means you're more academic than I'd have thought at a glance! Do you mind telling me if you self-studied or went to some sort of school for it?

[...Thank...you...???]

There aren't any proper schools for it - either you're self-taught or you have a mentor, and the latter is far more common. It was a bit of both, on my end.

Huh, I guess I can get that. There weren't any real school for alchemy back in the old country either. Mind you, we never had anything as advanced as what you're talking and it's fallen out of favor over time.

[ She waves a hand ]

Well, calling it that, anyway. Not that much different than chemistry, I suppose.

Oh, believe me, what I'm referring to is far different from chemistry alone. It operates on similar core principles, but it's nowhere near that basic.

... Okay, then I suppose I missed something. But that's your talent you can't do here, right?

Unfortunately enough, given how quickly it could possibly end this entire situation.

Huh, that is unfortunate then.

[ She sighs and looks back to the questions. Should she ask another...? She considers a long moment- oh, wait. ]

Has your country been at piece, or were you forced to the front before now? Unless that's too personal.

Not at all, no - although honestly, we haven't known true peace for as far back as I can remember, and I doubt we're going to know it in my lifetime. We're constantly at war with one country or another - mostly border skirmishes and territory disputes, but the conflicts get rather bloody from time to time.

There was a civil war recently that saw me summoned to the front lines, however. About six or seven years ago.

Oh, a civil war... those are nasty business.

[ All of the stories and legends - a lot of the worst of from civil conflicts. Europe was in some sort of war most of her youth, even as the powers prevented a major war as best they could. And then, of course, Japan saw several in her lifetime. ]

Amestris sounds like it's a precarious position, unless it's a particularly strong nation.

[ Then again, he has said on his profile - likes war. It's part of why she doesn't immediately offer condolences for the deployment. ]

Our army is almost absurdly powerful, actually - the parts of the country that aren't completely rural are heavily militarized. Unless the conflicts become particularly severe, like they did during that civil war - which had been ongoing for seven years before I was deployed, it was a long engagement - it isn't anything that we can't handle, it's just something that we've accepted as a part of life.

[ Honestly, not that unlike England, even if they outsourced much of their wars. So she nods. ]

Okay, let's switch gears here....

[ She looks at her sheet and- oh, this one in the center: ]

"If a crystal ball could tell you the truth about yourself, your life, the future or anything else, what would you want to know...?"

Huh, I wonder what she figures we don't know?

{...Hm.]

Well, I'd personally want to know if, by the end of my life, I'd managed to truly make a difference in the world. Which isn't precisely something that I can know for myself - it's something that tends to be made plain later, at least in full.

Oh, that's not a bad answer. To have a legacy like that's important to a lot of people.

[ Though from her tone...? Not so much to her. Still, she nods and - ]

As for me... there's some people who we- well, that I haven't seen or heard from since we left Europe. I suppose I'd like to know their actual fates.

[ Even if she's sure they're dead, burned to death or killed after... well, it might be nice to know for certain. ]

That seems entirely fair.

[Not...something he'd prioritize, personally, but he's never really been the sort in the first place.]

I'm assuming contact with these people is otherwise impossible...?

Like I said, circumstances changed and we had to get on that boat. Since then... well, I've never returned to my homeland. It's been two centuries, and so - I've never known for certain what happened to anyone left behind.

[ Again, like ninety-nine percent chance they're dead, but. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

it's not unusual to have fun with anyone

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