lostcarnival | ???????

Entry tags:

???????

Who: Annabelle and YOU!
What: WHAT IS TECHNOLOGY??
When: D55 dusk
Where: The backyard

Annabelle has been trudging around the backyard after an...interesting introduction to her eccentric roommate, which she has deemed as an overall satisfactory interaction. But there are other things to experience! And while she's walking around, kind of staring at the trailers with vague unease, because they are incredibly strange, the walky-talky thing she has tucked into her belt suddenly goes off.

She jumps, and drops it. It falls into the dirt, and she hears some chatter. She furrows her eyebrows, immediately lunging for it, and she tilts her head. Then, when she hears more voice, she tilts the device itself. She gives it a shake, looking increasingly puzzled. And agitated, actually.

So hey, if you're out and about in your neighborhood, you might find a tall, awkward girl you don't recognize standing in someone's garden, perhaps, shaking the communication device like it's a margarita-to-be. And she's caught sight of you, because she calls out, demanding and confused with the thing in her clutches, "What is this?"

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Shock and horror, Strange is actually doing his job. At least, he's sitting on the ground near his trailer, writing down as much as he can remember about Atlantis and Tamatoa in a notebook for Mari. He's currently in the middle of a very impressive drawing of the crab himself (spoilers, it looks like shit) when he hears a voice he doesn't recognize in the slightest and obviously confused about something or other.

"You're a new arrival, I assume?" Strange gets to his feet, wincing slightly because not only is he bruised all over from getting walloped by a giant crab but his brand new leftover from Atlantis scales are itching something fierce. Still, he manages to push through the discomfort and give Annabelle a smile before looking around...and seeing nothing out of the ordinary, not really connecting that it's the walkie-talkie that's confusing Annabelle in the first place.

"What exactly are you talking about?"

Annabelle doesn't return his smile, because she's socially oblivious.

"This thing," she hollers back, walking up to Strange while staring at it. "There's voices." She squints at him, obviously puzzled. Since he's asked if she's new, she takes that as insinuation he isn't. He probably knows what the hell's going on with it. "Should I be concerned? Is it cursed? Am I being had?"

She pauses, looking back down at it, then back up at Strange.

"I'm Annabelle, by the way."

Edited 2017-02-14 04:24 (UTC)

He just startles as she suddenly shouts at him. It was the girl from before. Oh great, of course some weirdo like her would end up sticking around. He comes closer, after a moment of hesitation, trying to see what she's got in her hand. She might notice he has a similar device sticking out of his pocket.

"What's what?"

She of course recognized Lauren, but gave no such indication. He was fuckin' green from head to toe, so she decided it wasn't necessary. She's too distracted by her own device to notice Lauren's, just yet.

"This...thing, they gave me," she says vaguely, rotating it in her hands. The chatter continues, and her eyes widen for a moment as she gives it a quick shake. "Ah!! See?!" She looks towards Lauren urgently. "What the devil is that?"

Oh the radio. That had confused him too at first, but at least she wasn't trying to figure out the device at four in the morning because of a singing skeleton. Still, the way she reacts, shaking it and looking so startled. Well, it's funny. He can't stop himself from smiling a bit. He looks away to hide it, but it's pretty obvious from the way he speaks he's amused.

"Um... Do they have magic where you're from?"

She pauses, staring at him incredulously. She's not offended he's clearly amused, and not even frustrated, either, because he's moving right along with it.

"...Are you implying there are places from which there is no magic?"

He nods, honestly completely understanding the reason for the question. To him magic was as much a part of life as the dirt, the grass, and the blue sky. To others here though, that apparently wasn't the case. He shrugs.

"That's what I've been told at least." It's still a very strange idea to consider though, like being told places existed where there were no elves or dwarves. He disregards the thoughts, pushing forward.

"But, this thing has magic that lets you speak to people who aren't near." he pulls out his own radio, showing her how it matches her own.

"If you talk into it everyone else with one can hear you."

Edited 2017-02-14 05:24 (UTC)

"I think you killed it," Ash mused as she paused in her wanderings to watch the woman throttle the radio to the best of her ability. Honestly she wasn't sure if these things COULD break, but damned if it didn't look like that one was about to find out. "It's a radio -- oh, you're new to technology, huh?"

This wasn't unfamiliar territory at all, so Ash wandered over with a smile, her tail curled into a question mark shape behind her.

"Oh, that's the radio!" said as if it's obvious. Reaching into his coat pocket, Strange pulled out his walky-talky network thing as well. "There's voices because you can use it to communicate with other carnival members. So no, you shouldn't be concerned, it's not cursed, and you aren't being had."

With a little nod, Strange puts the radio back in his pocket. "And I am Jonathan Strange. Pleasure to meet you, Miss Annabelle. I've been with the carnival for around a month and a half now, so if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them."

Never mind the fact that people have been here for years, whatever, he's got this.

"...Oh," she says blandly, feeling stupid as she looks at the walky-talky. She doesn't really understand wholly, after all. How does it actually work? How does it do that?

Annabelle is soon distracted from her questions before she can ask them when he introduced himself. She looks at him with a smile, awe and curiosity shining in her dark eyes. "Strange? Is that really your name?"

"Of course it is," Strange replies, with a shrug, the shrug of someone who's resigned himself to the fact that people will ask about his name until the end of time. "If I wanted to use an alias, I'd pick a name that wasn't Jonathan."

Not that there's anything wrong with Jonathan, of course. Just that there's an abundance of Jonathans or Johns in his life--why pick an alias that people already know?

"Still, call me Jonathan or Strange, it doesn't really matter to me."

"Is that so?" she asks, furrowing her eyebrow and raising the other as she appraises the item, as if with newly realized respect. "Clever magic," she concludes, not fully understanding the necessitation behind it, but she's impressed with the innovation. "Faster than letters, certainly."

She smiles at Lauren. "You're quite helpful, aren't you?"

Annabelle laughs at Strange's point, bowing her head as she does so, her wild hair falling all over. She straightens back up, combing her hair back in order with her fingers.

"I thought it might have been ordained by reputation, rather than self proclaimed," she says honestly. It's not that she thinks Strange is... well, strange; she's not yet gotten any such indication. But she was hoping. "Still, that's lovely. Utterly charming. I'm envious!"

He nods, it definitely was helpful. Despite the various negatives associated with being here, he honestly couldn't believe he hadn't thought of getting an object like this himself before. It made it much easier to find Susan in an emergency, and did a lot to alleviate his anxieties when it came to his brother's safety. As long as Susan wasn't purposely avoiding him he wasn't ever any more than a button click away.

This train of thought, however is completely abandoned as Annabelle compliments him. Lauren is no Foster, desperate for people to see the flaws in him and reject compliments, but he certainly isn't used to receiving praise. He really hasn't any idea how he should respond to the comment, or why she even offered it in the first place. She seemed a distant sort of girl, and her help, or lack of it, when they'd first met hadn't endeared him toward her, so he finds himself questioning her honesty. Was she trying to tease him? Did she think being helpful was a bad thing?

He isn't inclined to think the worst of people, but it is very difficult for him to believe in the compliments he receives from total strangers. The people he knew didn't even compliment him.

"...You're welcome." Best just to assume she isn't messing with him. If she was she'd likely make it clear soon enough anyway.

"To what?" Annabelle repeats incredulously, shaking her head in bafflement. Annabelle doesn't seem bothered or spooked by her approach, especially in that she's wanting of answers; that's enough to keep her rooted more than anything. "If I was new to something, why would you ask me of it by its name?"

She laughs, amused by his response. Annabelle has no games with him, as she's not even quite versed enough in the games of socialization enough to toy with someone's self esteem in that sort of way. She has no practice in lying.

"Well, I wasn't thanking you," she says in response, idly fiddling with one of the dials. Her eyes flit back up to him. "But I was thinking about it."

"Though it's my birth name, I'm afraid it's become rather apt," he can't help but admit, with a laugh and a sheepish little smile. "Back home, I've developed a reputation for being a bit eccentric."

That is putting it far too mildly. Still, Strange is talking about all this as if it's common knowledge, nothing he's worried about in the slightest. He's a little weird, well they're in a magic carnival that travels through faerie, everybody is a little weird. No biggie.

"Still, there's no need to be envious. Annabelle is an equally lovely name!"

"A lot of the time, people who don't believe in magic or have never seen it still have the term," Ash said. "Speaking in a very generic sense, that is. Sometimes technology is the same. They just threw it at you and told you to go to it, huh?"

Honestly, it did beg the question -- how did the carnival get tied up with radios for communication anyway? It didn't seem very, well, faelike in her opinion. Maybe these radios were special or unusual in some way.

Prooobably shouldn't take them apart though...

The bit about his growing reputation for being eccentric only intrigues and endears Annabelle further. Already, she's been meeting such amazing people; is this what the hermit was keeping her from? Her incredulous resentment for that is growing with every passing minute.

"But hardly so honestly descriptive," she returns, pointing a finger with a cheeky grin, sort of taking a step back with a playful swing of her leg. "I don't want people thinking I'm lovely, of all things. Useless, honestly."

"Well what would you rather they think you are?" It's innocent enough, asked as Strange looks over at Annabelle. Just a simple question—after all, different people would rather others think of them in different ways.

Besides, it'll be interesting to see how she responds. He knows nothing about this girl, but the fact that she'd rather people not think she's lovely is a tad endearing.

Annabelle pauses, having not given it decent, proper thought before. She thoughtfully tilts her head, resting her cheek against the radio in her hands.

"Powerful and all knowing," she decides.

Strange can't help but laugh, a charmed sort of laugh, nothing malicious. Powerful and all knowing? Now that's ambition! And it's something he recognizes and appreciates about Annabelle already. After all, it's better to go out and know something than it is to sit idly by and accept the limitations placed on you.

"I can understand that. It's always better to yearn to be all knowing than to be one of those fools who accepts limitations."

Annabelle laughs, raising her eyebrows. She doesn't disagree, though. If the hermit had heard Strange say such words, he would have been disappointed in Annabelle's agreeing. Her interest is cementing into something else, very quickly—something she's not familiar with, but it's something like a feeling of kinship.

"I think so too. Life's only true limitation is death, and recently, I believe even that is possibly debatable."

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

[Well. This is certainly a thing. Here she was, ready to say something about the poor flowers around Annabelle's feet, and now she's being called out! The inky-looking bird woman blinks, looking from the device, to Annabelle, and then to the device again.

...She sort of thought people got briefed on this stuff. Or at least given a crash course. After all, even people from aaaaages back seemed to do fine with the radios!

...Right?] ...The radio?

[There's a good chance Annabelle might not have been listening, too distracted and in awe of the carnival. That, and she may not have fully understood. Plus, it's her first day!! She'll get the hang of it. Give her a break.

She blinks at the radio, then at Carly, squinting over at her.]

Is that what it is?

[These are not only good reasons, but reasons Carly herself can understand. It's pretty cool here, after all, and it's very, very easy to miss important things when you're busy being in awe.]

That's right! [she starts, slowly gaining a steadier voice.] The workers use them to communicate! So, right now, yours is on...

[She tries to see if she can see the frequency from there. Uhhhhh....is that public or...?]

"Oh, that's certainly debatable," Strange says, without a pause and without waiting. "Both in my world, the Carnival, and other's worlds, people have been brought back from the dead by various magical methods."

There's no bitterness or censure in Strange's tone: talking about raising the dead is said matter-of-factly, secure in the knowledge that he's right.

"I'd heard of it," Annabelle responds, her eyes maybe a little too eager and sparkling, the faintest of smiles at the corner of her lips. "Fabled tales of forbidden magic, largely chalked up to being fantastical conjecture. My mentor won't confirm when I ask about its applications in real history, which confirms everything; I know it's real."

With both her fingers, she folds her hair behind her ears, now beaming. "What have you heard of raising the dead in the Carnival?"

Edited 2017-02-19 21:48 (UTC)

Annabelle's brows knit with confusion, since she's still overall not very familiar with the use of the phrase, regardless of comparisons. She looks back down at the radio, turning it in her palm a little.

"They might have mentioned its function," she says thoughtfully, and the corner of her lips lift as she rolls her eyes back up to Ash. "I might? have not listened. I was very distracted."

Honestly, she doesn't remember very clearly.

[there's no clear way to really tell without taking the radio from Annabelle, but it's on the public channel.]

Oh,

[she answers simply, blinking in bewidlerment.]

How do I turn it off?

"I'm still trying to figure that much out," Strange admits. He's also a bit too eager, talking about this as he would talk about a new scholarly development or a new treatise, not literal life and death. "From what I understand, it's some form of a ritual, performed by the Ringmaster ahead of time. One can't be brought back from the dead as an afterthought, the ritual before the death is required."

Which honestly? Is very interesting.

"And don't worry. My mentor refuses to talk about the precise nature of raising the dead as well, despite the fact that all of London society knows he's performed that magic. I had to resort to blood magic of all things during my time in the peninsula."

Ash looked at her for a moment, then held out a hand palm-down at shoulder height. "Sympathy levels way decreasing," she said, lowering the hand down to her waist.

She just wanted to make that point though, because a moment later she yanked her own radio off her belt, spun it on her palm, then caught it to hold it up. "Okay, basic tutorial one-oh-one. These things can be turned on or off. Doesn't work when it's off. So always keep it on unless you have a real good reason. That's this switch." The claw on her index finger slid out of its sheath to add an extra emphasis when she tapped the power switch.

Heh? Turn it-

[The words sink in, and immediately, Carly begins to stammer and panic, feathers fluffing considerably.] D-Don't turn it off, whatever you do..! You can change the channel if you need to, but if you turn it off you could miss a serious warning you know!

Where do you work? If you turn it to the channel for that line of work, you'll get warnings, but otherwise it should stay quiet outside work things.

Oh...

[Annabelle supposes that makes sense; better the idle chatter than important announcements. She finds that very handy as a concept.

With Carly's question, she lifts her head, smiling.]

Ah—apparently, I'm a tailor. I'm not so certain of the where, but—has that its own "channel"?

[Oh indeed. It's a very serious matter! Carly nods for that exact reason, launching right into an explanation.] That's right! The Wardrobe department has its own channel, for make up and tailors! Though, it's kinda quiet, since make up is only one person, and then there's just one assistant for the whole place, and I'm the only tai......

[It is now that she realizes what Annabelle has said, and as Carly trails off, she looks as if she's just won the lottery and is still trying to process.] ....You mean I'm not working alone any more..???

[Annabelle blinks, then laughs with a degree of bewilderment, actually rather charmed by Carly's blind motormouth.]

I suppose?

[After all, it's not like... Annabelle would have known Carly was alone in the first place!]

I can't promise anything amazing, but I'll be eager to learn whatever you teach me.

[She's ready to cry and struggling-she'll try very very hard not to make this weird, at least!!

It's probably weird.] J-Just having you on board is plenty already..!! I've been the only tailor for the entire carnival for the last few weeks..!!

[It is weird—which is Annabelle's favorite thing, so she's not made uncomfortable.

She does, however, have no context to go along with Carly's sentiment.]

Is—that a lot? How many people do you create for?

Well....we have to make costumes for all the performances, first of all...

But since we don't always go to a place where we can take material goods back, we're also in charge of general wardrobe! So if someone needs new clothes, or bedclothes or something, or they need replacements thanks to a new change, that's on us!

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

???????

looking at her app, they're gonna get along like a house on fire

YEA GOD it...yea.................... yea..

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

sorry carnival

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

lauren is no foster I DIE

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

HELLO NEW COWORKER

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

SORRY FOR MY CHRONIC LATENESS

S'ALL GOOD YO

no subject

no subject