five ☀ video

[deshabille]

Who: Mal and you
Broadcast: Fleetwide!
Action: The Marsiva
When: Right meow (November 8)

Is everyone having fun?

[You know . . . if her expression were any different, that would sound absolutely sarcastic and pretty condescending. But she's positively beaming. Gleeful. Mal is having a great few weeks.]

It's more fun on the ships, I have to admit, but everyone's minds are so interesting. People can look almost exactly the same on the outside and be absolutely distinctive on the inside. [And she thinks that's beautiful.]

Also, a question - most of these videos and things are from Earth, yes? Well, I'm not, so someone ought to tell me where to start. My requirements thus far are: no folk music, no Taylor Swift.

[A beat. She frowns.]

No romance unless there's also a lot of punching. [Or you're Cassandra. The only exception.]

Comments

[deshabille]

Really?

[She leans forward a little at the last part, curious.]

We don't have that, I don't think. Just the traits. There's rumors that there are sort of - halfway or backwards werewolves. Wolves that turn into men? But I've no idea. I never--

[Mm. She hesitates, tips her head to one side.]

It's actually a bit limiting, you know. Gothic castles. I've only ever met one werewolf, before you.

[theshabbiestofmen]

Do you really live in a castle! Good lord, I-- sorry, it's just-- rather cliche, you know? I mean, I live in a city.

[deshabille]

Isn't it awful?

[She pulls a face.]

Not anymore, though. I left. Because it was terrible. I'm a soldier now, generally we get tents if we're lucky, dirt if we're not.

[theshabbiestofmen]

May I ask what your war was about?

[He tips his head.]

I wouldn't classify myself as a soldier, but, ah, there was a war going on in my home. Which I'm participating in.

[deshabille]

Are you.

[At no point during this conversation has Mal's intense focus wavered at all. However, at that, she does sit up a little straighter, and quietly hopes he has someone like Polly to guide him along.]

It was a stupid war. Really and truly. Not for any noble cause, not for justice or to defeat some great evil. Territorial disputes going so far back in time as to make them totally irrelevant, if not for national pride in - I have no idea what. Turnips, probably. A lot of very stupid powerful people doing very stupid things.

[theshabbiestofmen]

Ah.

[His smile is sad and sympathetic.]

I'm sorry. Those are the worst kinds of war.

[deshabille]

There is no good kind. But you're right.

[She smiles back, brief but genuine.]

You can tell me, if you want. Or we can keep talking about me. I can talk about me for hours.

[theshabbiestofmen]

[He grins-- amused, yeah, and a little self-conscious.]

It's . . . god. Over a lot of things, honestly. I don't know how James has told anyone, really-- but there's a man. A leader of a movement which hates anyone who isn't what he calls pureblood. Anyone who has any relation to nonmagic peoples-- which includes myself, by the way, my mother wasn't magical in the least-- he wants to kill them all. A mass genocide, leaving behind only those he deems pure enough.

Idiotic, but he's attracted a vast amount of followers.

[He doesn't look twenty-one anymore. Now Remus just looks tired, tired and sad. There's a bit of white in his hair, he knows, because it's been such a long fight so far.]

So. We fight. James is part of it, though he doesn't know it yet. We join right out of school. Run missions, fight against Death Eaters-- that's what they call themselves, because their entire motive is to spread terror. And they do it very, very well.

[deshabille]

[He does look tired. Which tells her a few things, really. One: he very much is a soldier, whether he chooses to categorize himself like that or not. Two: she'll have to change the subject soon or risk wearing him out utterly, and she's already quite decided he doesn't deserve that. He's a good lad, and for some people, this place can function as a break - an odd break, but a break all the same.]

[Resting her chin on her hand, she leans in a little, curious but making an effort to be less oppressive in her curiosity than usual.]

You'd be surprised at how attractive hate can be to a certain kind of person, who's used to power. Or, well. Maybe you wouldn't.

What's his name? In case he shows up here, so I can kick him in the fork preemptively.

[theshabbiestofmen]

Good question. He calls himself Voldemort. God knows what his original name is, but he wants people to be so afraid of him that we just call him You-Know-Who.

[deshabille]

. . . Eurgh.

[WHO DOES THAT.]

[theshabbiestofmen]

Repellant in story, rather effective in person.

[deshabille]

What a bastard. It's the charming monsters that are the worst.