driftfleet | may-time mingling (starstruck!)

Entry tags:

may-time mingling (starstruck!)

Who: Starstruck crew + visitors
Broadcast: N/A
Action: Aboard the Starstruck!
When: The merry merry month of May

[ there's been a tiny regime change and doubtless some debriefing after that masquerade! have at it, starstruckers. mingle away! ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I wish I could accept your congratulations with grace and gratitude, Alistair. But the truth is that I had very little to do with the appointment, I think.

[ but peggy smiles -- good-natured, despite it all. she does the polite thing and stands from her chair so she can invite him properly into the room. ] Please, come in. If only so I can give you a small lesson in Earth literature.

[ He has to laugh at her demurral. Sounds pretty much exactly like him, honestly. ]

At least you're taking it seriously. More than some people probably would.

[ But he's more than willing to step inside for a lesson. ]

So tell me about this Bard of yours.

William Shakespeare. Playwright and poet -- a particularly prolific one, too. I can't speak for the quality of education in other nations but...where I grew up, we were well schooled in his verses.

Hmm. But he didn't, er, sing or anything?

Well, his characters did. From time to time.

Huh. Where I come from, bards are usually storytellers and musicians.

...And sometimes spies. The Orlesian ones, anyway.

[ spies, you say? she barely bats a lash. ]

It seems a little imprudent to cast your spies so often in the same trade.

I think they make a game of it - the Orlesians. You know, "is the minstrel I hired to play at my soiree secretly spying for my rival"? They think it's fun.

[ dryly: ] Odd definition of the word.

Which word?

Fun, Mister Alistair.

[ That gets a grin from him. ]

Yeah, they do have weird ideas of fun. And they don't like dogs - never trust a person who doesn't like dogs.

Is that your metric, then? [ it's as good as any. ] You must be pleased with our resident canine. Max has done wonders with him.

Of course. What kind of person do you have to be not to like dogs?

He won't name him anything interesting, though. Not Ser-Barks-A-Lot, or Barkspawn, or anything.

[ -- AHEM.

stiffly: ] Actually, he left me the honours of naming Rock.

[ :| ]

[ ...

........

oops. ]

...Well it's not that ... bad... I mean... it's... sure.

I assure you -- [ she smiles, amused ] -- the name wasn't chosen at random. Quite the opposite. But if I tell you why, you can't repeat it.

[ Oooh, it has ~secret meaning~! That gets him to perk up. ]

I won't, I promise!

The dog's a bit of a grumpy old stray whose affections are hard to win, but not impossible. A bit banged around. A bit unloved, in his time, I imagine. Not unlike his owner. [ ... ] Have you ever had the opportunity to learn Max's full name?

No, um. He usually just ignores me when I try to talk to him.

[ Lots of people do that with Alistair. ]

[ her answer is a single word: ] Rockatansky.

Oh, so... you named the dog after him.

[ Makes sense. ]

He actually talks to you?

He does. For a given definition of the word talking. Perhaps it's more accurate to say I talk with him, and he on occasion deigns to give me a response. It's a work in progress.

That... sounds a little more accurate.

...It really was a bit like talking to a rock. Which occasionally grunts. I knew a fellow back home - called himself Sten, though I think that was his rank, not actually his name. He was a bit like that. Actually, I think he talked more than Max.

Give him time. He talks more. [ ... ] Perhaps I shouldn't be proud of it, but I named the dog the way I did in order to tease the owner. Not that it means you should like the name any more or less, I suppose.

[ in the end, it hardly needs to be justified to anyone. ]

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