005

[madamemoiselle]

{Diva hops onto the Astral Plane, or, at least it looks like her. The hair and eyes are the same, but everything else is completely different. With a much more boyish frame, a younger face, and even being smaller in general, it seemed as if she was wearing someone else's skin.}

Ne, that girl, she must have been bad luck. After all, you brought sister with you into New York! How sad~
But it's kind of nice to see Saya again, even if she's here to kill me and my Chevalier. Ah, last time we saw each other was on that boat, after all. She's probably still angry about that.

{Her hands release what she was holding, and she scatters what seems like glittering, blood red rubies on the invisible ground. Diva crouches down to pick one up again, holding it in between her fingers with a decidedly blank expression.}

But she didn't hesitate this time. It makes sense she'd kill my Chevalier first, but...Well, I guess Karl died the way he wanted to. Ne, but it's getting more dangerous to stay at "home". Would anyone care if I just stayed here for a while? It's really getting to be troublesome to stay at home, even with my Chevalier to protect me. If she can't find me, after all, maybe sister will leave.

Comments

[didorothy]

I like to think - hope, anyway - that most people are decent.

[madamemoiselle]

...That's a much nicer way to think about people.

[didorothy]

It helps a lot to think that way.

[madamemoiselle]

I like it more. Ah, it'd be kind of hard, since it seems like you would be disappointed a lot, but it sounds better than just disliking everyone on principle.

[didorothy]

It's happier, I think.

[madamemoiselle]

{Long pause as she considers it, which brings her to a seemingly unrelated point} Ne...I just realized, I talk about my home so often, but Sam has never told me about his. What is Sam's home like?

[didorothy]

[opens his mouth, then shuts it] That's... Uh... [scratches the back of his head] Home? Home's...

[madamemoiselle]

Home is...?

[didorothy]

Home is a long, long way away.

[madamemoiselle]

Really? You can't just go home from the Astral Plane?

[didorothy]

[shakes his head] What I go back to, that's some place else. There was... I had an accident, and I ended up a long, long way away from home. From where I belong. When I go back, I go back to the Guv's home, not mine.

[madamemoiselle]

Well, if it's someone else's home, can't you just travel back to yours? If there are planes at your home, it should be easy enough. If you need money for traveling, I can give it to you.

[didorothy]

It's... a bit more complicated than that.

[madamemoiselle]

How so?

[didorothy]

I went... thirty-three years into the past. To 1973.

[madamemoiselle]

Wow...And that was because of an accident? Oh, but I guess a plane wouldn't work in that case. I'm sorry.

[didorothy]

Nothing to be sorry about. It's just... difficult. [sighs] But, uh, which one do you want to hear about? 2006, or '73?

[madamemoiselle]

Uhm...Both, if that's alright.

[didorothy]

Well, 2006 Manchester is... normal, for a pretty big city. Steel buildings and skyrises. I'm a DCI there - that's Detective Chief Inspector, highest officer who sees any fieldwork - and, uh, my mother's there... It's... it's just a normal big city. The crime rate's all right. The chippies are good. Lots of cars and mobiles and lorries, and there are some great places for food down Curry Mile... Not much to say, really. It's normal.

[madamemoiselle]

{Smiles} That makes me wonder how different our worlds are. Who knows, maybe that one is the same. It's 2006 where I am, and I was in London...only a few weeks ago. Well, and I was awake in 1973 too, but halfway across the world then!

But if I get to go to Manchester...Well, I'll have to go try some things down Curry Mile. Well, assuming curry is the big thing there. It's not my favorite, but it's something I can taste. ♥

[didorothy]

You're awake in both mytimes? That's a... nice coincidence, really.

Oh, curry mile isn't all curry. It's got a lot of South Asian restaurants, thus the nickname, but they serve all sorts of food.

[madamemoiselle]

{She nods with a soft smile} That was the year I woke up, 1973. In Vietnam, but that first year was quiet. It was 74 and 75 that were busy and violent. Then I went back to sleep right at the beginning of 1976. Ah, then 30 years later, I wake up again. So since that was last year, next year I'll go back to sleep.

Well, it wouldn't matter! I would get curry. {She nods} I'm not sure why, but I can't taste a lot of things. Amshel said that it was probably some...some...biological thing {She definitely doesn't know what biological means} to make sure that I ate what I was supposed to. So there's not a lot I can taste. But curry is one of them. But I much prefer strawberries.

[didorothy]

...Oh. Only another year?

You can taste strawberries? They don't seem... very strong.

[madamemoiselle]

Well...A year and a half. I woke up the summer of last year. It's Christmas-time right now, though. It snows almost every day, actually! So I'll have another Christmas, then I'll probably go to sleep sometime between May and July.

That one is strange, compared to other things. Alcohol, curry, strawberries, hotsauce, seaweed, and some other things that have a really strong flavour. Ah, alcohol is a little different, though. Humans really like to drink, just to get drunk, I guess, but that doesn't work for us. We can drink all we want, and it wouldn't matter at all. Solomon said that was because our bodies probably thought it was poison and got rid of it the same way it does mercury or arsenic or anything like that.

[didorothy]

That's not very long, is it? I wonder if I'll be here long enough to see Christmas...

You should challenge the Guv to a drinking contest. It'd be fun to see his reaction to losing to a woman.