Video [Open]

[english_dignity]

Who: Arthur Kirland and Open
Broadcast: Network - Unfiltered
Action: SS Marsiva
When: Thursday evening

[The badly angled view of Marsiva's viewing bay should be familiar to most before Arthur gets his camera angled right to actually show his face. It figured he'd be dragged away on his day off. Meeting new people when he actually looked respectable and not dressed like a punk (Union Jack shirt, earrings, and temporary green streaks in his hair included) would just be too much to ask for, wouldn't it?]

Really, kidnapped to a reality show in space. If I didn't know better I'd think someone had given me a good sound whack on the head. This would make more sense as a hallucination.

[Grumbles, flicking a few green strands from his face and trying to straighten his clothes to look somewhat respectable. The proper English accent helps, he's sure.]

Well, since it sounds like I'm not the only one in this situation, I might as well say hello. I'm Arthur Kirkland, of Great Britain. It's a pleasure to meet you. Circumstances aside of course. I'm sorry for my appearance, but this caught me a little off-guard.

Comments

[mucked]

Or muck with our augments from time to time -- if we're being too boring, I suppose.

[english_dignity]

...how so?

[Because as uneasy he is about having something wired into his brain, having it messed with sounds even worse.]

[mucked]

They can change the way you behave -- or suddenly lower your age, perhaps. Change your memories. [ ... ] Makes it difficult, at times, to hold others accountable for everything they've done. Hard to say whether something is their doing, or the Atroma's.

[english_dignity]

[Curses under his breath.]

Well. Lowering my age would hardly be worth the effort unless they really put their backs into it enough to show, I'll say that. The memories, those are a little more worrying.

[mucked]

It's best to accept that there will be a certain margin of error even when trusting your own senses, I'm afraid.

[english_dignity]

I'll remember that. Perhaps I should take up journal writing again to track any changes.

How do you cope with this madness, Miss Carter?

[mucked]

The Starstruck backs up all its most pertinent files in hard copies. [ she doesn't trust digital formats -- didn't even before the inconsistencies were exposed. ] And as for myself? Well -- I make do. A cuppa in the morning and another before bed. Having something new to learn is a helpful distraction, too.

[ and for someone as far-behind as she tends to be, there's always something new to learn. ]

[english_dignity]

Heh. Tea always makes things better even if just a little bit, doesn't it?

I'd have to get the supplies again since they didn't have the courtesy to grab my sewing basket along with me, but I've found needlepoint to always be nicely relaxing too. [Smirks] Especially when I can imagine stabbing certain people in the face every time the needle goes in.

[mucked]

Needlepoint! [ good god, how dreary. and although she doesn't the say the word, her verdict comes through loud and clear in her voice. ] Ah, well. Needles won't be tough to source. Nor thread neither -- once you're let off the Marsiva, you might have a chance to browse the shops at our latest stop.

[english_dignity]

Don't knock it. I know it's not for everyone these days, but I find it enjoyable. Simply can't do a lot of my old hobbies what with treaties and all. Only problem is I'm running out of things to make with the finished product. Man can only have so many decorative pillows with 'Sod off, France' [cough] 'Francis,' sewn onto them.

[mucked]

[ what an odd duck. although it's worth asking: ] Which days are you referring to when you say 'these days'? People tend to come from all over the timeline.

[ and from alternate worlds aside. ]

[english_dignity]

[That is probably the most accurate description of him, yep.]

Really? Well, that's something.

Personally, it was 2015 last I checked the paper. David Cameron is the Prime Minister, Elizabeth II is the Queen, her grandson, Prince William, and his wife just had their second child, and four men over fifty managed to steal £200 million worth of jewels and other items from a bank's safety deposit vault last month.

They've been caught, of course.

[mucked]

...It's always bloody twenty-fifteen, isn't it? [ an edge of sour to her voice. as years go, that one seems perfectly common. good on elizabeth, however. ]

It was 1947, for me. Rather different.

[english_dignity]

Common year around here?

That was some time ago for me. Still had marks from the war then...

[Stops, realizing what he just admitted. Rubs the back of his neck, a bit embarrassed.]

I should perhaps admit that I'm a bit older than I look.

[mucked]

You're not the first to suffer from that particular curse. [ wry. sarcastic, even. she's met a few people whose lives span more decades than they should. but what interests her the most -- ]

You served?

[english_dignity]

In a manner of speaking. I had no official rank, but I went where they needed me. Spent a good portion of time in Italy, actually. Though I'll say I never did make a very good spy. [Huffs, embarrassed.] Better in the field anyway, or patching people up.

[mucked]

[ -- a moment of silence. of course, no spy worth their salt starts out by saying the word 'spy'. even if, she thinks, they didn't make a good one. for her part, she swallows any possible mention of herself in conjunction with tradecraft. ]

I was general clerical. [ she lies. it's an easy lie, despite how candid she can be about her role in the war with others. it's never great to lead with her most honest food, however. ] Lots of paperwork. Terribly dull.

[english_dignity]

[Like he said, he was a terrible spy. Doesn't help when the specific people he's watching know his face. And it was over fifty years ago.]

That's most of my work now, I'm afraid. I think it's mostly to keep my busy.

[mucked]

Oh? What's your field?

[english_dignity]

Government work, nothing that interesting. Mostly trade agreements or just whatever Her Majesty or our Prime Minister tell me. Other times it's... well I believe one of my colleagues phrased it as 'direct diplomacy' once. Which is a nicer way of saying attending meetings where everyone pretty much just shouts their own opinion and very little actually gets done.

[mucked]

[ a diplomat. heaven help them all. ]

Sounds like just about any meeting I've ever been to. Especially the part about little getting done.

[english_dignity]

[Well someone needs to give America a good bonk on the head when he starts talking giant robots and nonsense like that.]

The only useful thing about them is that they tend to serve good tea most of the time. The rest I might as well sleep through for all the use they are. I prefer to get things done more directly, but unfortunately, Elizabeth frowns on the idea of just letting me bring a sword to get my point across.

[mucked]

A sword? [ said very much in the tone of someone who's thinking what good will that do? ]

[english_dignity]

It used to be a man's best tool for diplomacy.

[There's a touch of feralness to that smile before he buries it under a more polite one again.]

Certainly more satisfying than shouting at them from across a table until you break for supper.

[mucked]

[ a bit churlish, admittedly, but: ] I've always preferred a gun.