driftfleet | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Who: Anyone who wants to hang on the Iskaulit
Broadcast: nah
Action: Iskaulit mingle, darlings
When: All day every day (at least for the month)

[We're drifting, so it's a perfect time to make use of the many fine establishments on our common ship.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Why are you blue?

[ Cara doesn't do hellos. ]

[he stares at her for a moment, blinking]

Er. Because my mutation makes me blue.

What is this . . . mutation?

[oh boy]

It's genetic. [a pause] Are you familiar with what genes are?

Is it not a kind of clothing?

[he smiles a little] It is, but that isn't what I mean.

Genes are - something you inherit from your parents. Your hair and eye color - that's because of the genes that were passed down when you were born. They're like building blocks.

But a mutation is when one of those blocks is changed. Or in my case - there's an extra block entirely. It's what makes me look like this.

So you had three parents instead of two? . . . I suppose that makes as much sense as anything here.

What? —n-no, no, I don't mean a third parent. I have two, normal human parents.

Then how did this other block get in there?

. . . Parents do lie about these things. It's time to grow up.

[dryly] If I had a third parent, I'd know.

[he scratches at his cheek] One of my parents' had the extra block in their set of genes, and when I was conceived, it was passed on to me. The only difference is that - the information in that block was used, instead of just being given to me. Does that make a little more sense?

As much as any of this does.

[ But she nods. ] We don't have such things in the Midlands.

It can be pretty confusing - genetics isn't an easy science.

[he nods] Your comment about clothing sort of tipped me off. [he smiles a bit] Where are the Midlands, if I may ask?

. . . Where? It is the Midlands. There is nothing else.

Ah - that's the name of your country, then?

[ She shrugs. ]

It is everything. There are smaller . . . kingdoms within the Midlands but that is all there is.

[he tilts his head, but nods]

So you're from a place that isn't Earth.

You come from Earth? That seems dirty. Do you sprout out of the ground too?

[oh my god]

No, it's not like that. Earth is the name of the planet.

That is a terrible name for a place.

Because it sounds dirty?

It is literally called dirt. It's not very smart, as names go.

Maybe not, but it was given that name many, many years ago. It's a little too late to go and change it now.

Did you at least murder the man who did it? Surely such a crime does not go unpunished.

. . . no, he died long before I was ever born.

Well, it doesn't have to be you.