mingle post? mingle post. MINGLE POST!!

[carreau]

Who: you
Broadcast: if you want
Action: also if you want
When: right. goddamn. now.

[ It's a mingle post. IN SPACE.

Just comment and tag around. ]

Comments

[ladiesss]

Oh, that's fine! I like, literally just got here. I'm just glad to see someone I sorta recognize.

[she sighs, before... she squints a little.]

Hey, why are you whispering?

[rebella]

( because she's a mimic and doesn't even recognize that's what she's been doing - only with it being brought up, Ella straightens up, a little embarrassed. if she's not supposed to be, then she might be being rude, which is... not... nice when it's not intentional. there are those she doesn't mind being intentionally rude to, but they're not currently present. )

Either I suspected we're both in a conspiracy of whispers, or I'm not paying close attention to how I'm speaking. ( She swallows, speaking at a more normal volume. ) Though... you're speaking in whispers. Why is that?

[ladiesss]

...Oh! Oh, no. No, no, no.

[she looks surprised! and then a little embarrassed--she actually forgot that she speaks so quietly, since all of her friends are used to it by now. that makes way more sense. she waves her hand a little, hoping to clear that right up--]

I've got a, uh, weird throat thing. I always sound like this, you totally don't have to whisper if you don't want to. I'm not really trying to keep secrets, or anything.

[rebella]

( Which makes sense, as much as anyone else's condition makes sense when it's still largely unknown. Ella can accept what she's saying easily enough. A "throat thing" doesn't tell her what it is, but aside from quirking up an eyebrow when it's mentioned, she doesn't need to press right now. She continues speaking at normal volume at first. )

I apologize, I didn't realize that was the case. I hope you didn't feel like I was mocking you. Still, if you don't mind - ( she drops back down to a whisper in turn, offering a small smile at the same time ) - whisper talking might even be fun, some of the time. I'm Ella.

( She holds out her hand more along the lines of when merchants will shake over a deal than what the nobility tends to do, but she appreciates more direct honesty, and besides, who needs to curtsey wearing these clothes? )

[ladiesss]

[she can do a big-girl handshake! she used to practice with her dad when she was little--she just didn't think it'd come in handy again in a place like this. she returns the handshake with a smile, even if she's still a little embarrassed.]

I'm, uh, Krista. Krista Kingsley. I guess we can just, like, whisper anyway and be really mysterious and see if it bumps our ratings up or whatever?

[after which she plucks a piece of paper out of her hair and... holds it out for her.]

Confetti?

[rebella]

( Right, ratings, that thing that doesn't make any real sense and apparently is most of what they're here for. Ella turns her hands palm side up, as if she's unsure what to fill them with. Those invisible ratings, maybe? )

It's a pleasure to meet you officially, Krista. As for that, it might just, if we want to convince our Captain to follow suit.

( Henry is an odd one. He might... even go for it. Who knows? Either way, she takes the bit of confetti, lifting her eyebrows, then smiles. )

Kind of you to share. Did you want any help getting the rest out?

[ladiesss]

God yes, please help. [she ducks her head forward a little, brushing through her hair some more.] The last time this happened to me, I was still finding pieces in my clothes a week later.

[rebella]

( Ella starts carefully picking out pieces of confetti, fingers light and deft at their work. She's careful not to pull hairs as she frees bits of colored paper from where they've fallen. Hattie's hair and its strands of pearls (more to a point, her wig) has given her more than enough practice in recent weeks. Er... recent awake weeks. Unlike with Hattie, it's an act freely done, not demanded.

Besides, Krista has been nice enough. Helping her out is hardly a burden. Ella smiles. )

I keep expecting to find them on me, too, but I think I managed to beat most of them out of my dress. Too bad a firm tone doesn't work to make them scamper off on their own.

( She says, a growing collection of colored paperbits in the hand she's not using to pluck them out with. )

[ladiesss]

Oh, if... only...

[she gets distracted for a moment, thinking... could she use her magic to convince the paper to leave? maybe she could... really specifically pinpoint and burn them out... and light her hair on fire. that seems like a terrible idea.]

Thank you. I'm guessing the showers on this ship are as bad as the ones on mine, so this'll save me time... trying to get them out that way...

you can ignores this i'm so sorry

[rebella]

They're great if you like short torrential downpours, but if you wanted anything else... yes. They're probably equally terrible.

( Setting hair on fire is definitely not a grand idea. )

you're fine! C:

[ladiesss]

Blech... [she takes her head back so that she can run her fingers through, pick out a couple little bits.] Well, that's life on a bizarre multiverse reality show, I guess. How's the rest of the crew? Do you know...?

[rebella]

Our Captain is a little... odd. I haven't met our other crew member since I woke back up just recently.

( Henry talks about curses and killing people in the army with dark magic that's??? a thing??? )

Still seems to be nice enough group for a motley assortment of unrelated people. I haven't heard of any fights breaking out.

[ladiesss]

Well, good! I am solidly on the side of everyone being friends here.

[phew... now that she's mostly clean, she straightens up...]

Um, hey... If it's not weird, can I ask how old you are?

[rebella]

( Eyebrows lifting, Ella blinks. )

I don't see how it's strange to ask, as long as you're planning to answer in turn. ( She smiles. ) I've seen sixteen years by now.

( It's a nice, technically marriageable age. For all she'd told Char she was too this, too that to be married yet.

Too blessed with a gift that could hurt everything beyond them, not just him. )

[ladiesss]

Whoa, really? [she seems really surprised!] I thought you were way older! I mean, not in a bad way, I mean, uh--I'm just saying that you seem, uh, really mature for your age and stuff...

[rebella]

( This just makes Ella laugh because that's something she can imagine enough people not agreeing, though Mandy might, by now. Does making hard decisions make you grow up? She'd felt older with that heartache, but in ways, it probably had. )

I'm not so sure as many would agree with that back home, but my father certainly thought I was old enough to marry, so I suppose there's something to it.

( She sounds like she's joking, and she does wink when she says so, but that's - also not funny hahahaha. Oh well. )

How about yourself, since we're on the subject?

[ladiesss]

Ew, marrying. [which she says offhandedly, without really thinking about it... it's easy to tell she doesn't really approve, even if it was a joke.] I'm seventeen. Except, well, I was in one place where time didn't move for a long time, so I might actually technically be a little older...?

[rebella]

Time didn't move? I don't understand what you mean. Were you frozen?

( Was the whole place frozen??? No comment on Ew on marrying. Ella can't say that if she didn't have a certain kind of freedom, she wouldn't have said yes to Char... because she would have. She wanted to, with all her heart, but she couldn't. Jeopardizing the kingdom like that, and Char, and the rest, it wasn't okay. )

[ladiesss]

Oh, not quite. Like, it was a pocket dimension... So it was kind of...

[she attempts to gesture with her hands, showing one section of... something... separated from another section of... something...]

Like it's own thing? Time moved way faster there than it does everywhere else, I think, so... I kind of just chalk it up to magical nonsense.

[rebella]

I can't imagine what the cost of something like that would be elsewhere...

( Unless all magic is just now magically okay being done whenever, but that makes no comparative sense to what Mandy told her back home. Everything had a cost and consequence. Things like that had to be large magic... what else happened because of something like that? )

[ladiesss]

Right? [she is so on board with this train of thought.] Freaks me out a little bit, actually.

[rebella]

It's irresponsible, which is scary enough. Anyone with that much power who doesn't care about the consequences of using that power as they like doesn't lead to happy endings.

( or middles, or much of anything. )

[ladiesss]

[she nods...]

Also, very cool that we're all good with magic, here. That's one weird conversational hurdle I don't have to make, now.

[rebella]

I... have seen enough of it in my life that it'd be silly to think there's not more about magic that I don't know than what little I do. It's not common knowledge where you're from?

[ladiesss]

Nooooo, it's definitely not. A lot of people really don't even like the idea.

[which she says with a frown, absently running her fingers through her hair again.]