voidtreckernet | Early Kazoo 2

[An hour or two after today's morning announcement, the ICPs light up again, this time showing Devero's face. He made himself fairly scarce yesterday-- he had a new toy to play with!!-- so newcomers, you may not have seen him around. (If you had, you'd probably recognize the distinctive device that he wears on his face.) He's wearing it now as he looks earnestly into the ICP camera. From the background, he's obviously in his cabin.]

Hello, folks, a moment of your time, if you please! I promise to be a lot less annoying than Glowstick was last night.

First, for you new passengers, my name's Devero. Unfortunately, that's not what it says on the passenger roster, but please don't try to call me by that string of numbers and letters. That's my ID code, but it's not my name.

Second. [He holds up a compact little brick-looking thing in one hand, showing it for a moment before he takes it and opens it up into a futuristic-looking tablet.] I'm donating this to the library. It's a course to teach yourself sign language-- well, GSL, the sign language where I come from. [He sets down the tablet, steps back far enough from the ICP that he's visible from the waist up, and as he speaks the next part, he signs it too.] We have a few folks on the train who would benefit from more people knowing it, so if you want to learn, come find this in the library. [He stops signing and gets closer to the screen again.]

I'm going to try to be in the library for lessons or anyone who wants to practice on certain days too. I'll put it up on that board in standard when I have a set time nailed down.

Third, in case you hadn't heard: Cassie's hosting a ballroom social tomorrow in the evening. You can ask her for the details; I just wanted to say that after I'm done here I'm going to park myself in the gym for a few hours. You want to brush up on your ballroom, or learn some steps so you can do a turn on the dance floor with your blind date? I've got you covered.

Oh, one last thing. [He turns and reaches out of the picture, then draws his hand back into the frame. Hovering above it is a vaguely loaf-shaped metal thing with a big camera lens in front and a purple ribbon tassel hanging off the antenna on the back.] This is my new Mantiscope. It's a kind of robot pet from my world, and it's completely harmless. [He makes a gesture in the air with his free hand, and the floating loaf extends its neck and its legs, dropping lightly to his palm. It swivels its elongate head and focuses its lens-eye on his face. That little antenna on the back end pivots up and down, making the tassel wave.] It's new, so it should stick by me since I'm its user. If you see it on its own anywhere, will you let me know so I can come collect it? I'd appreciate it.

Okay, that's all I've got. Thanks for your time. I'll head down to the gym shortly, but let me know if you have any questions while I'm still here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Cherry waited on him - or maybe joined him - in the gym. Either way, her ears perked up significantly and her tail curled cheerily as she saw him. She waved to him.

“Hi Mr. Devero!” She cheerfully approached in a manner that could only be described as a trot.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been to any sort of Ishgardian ball; I thought maybe this would be a good opportunity to get some practice in?”

She is telling the absolute truth, but there’s a playfulness in the way her tail starts to twitch that suggests she may not need as much practice as she’s implying.

She’s also excited enough to forget to introduce herself, apparently.

"Just Devero is fine!" he returned as the newcomer trotted right up to him. "Or Mx. Devero, if you must."

His eyes make a very obvious trip from her ears to her tail and then back to her face, but otherwise he keeps his cool about the fact that he's just been approached by a cat person. Be cool, Devero, everyone's cool on this train.

"That where you come from?" he asks her with a smile. "Ishgard?"

“Oh! I’m sorry for the mistake, um, Mx. Devero.” She mostly repeated it to see how it felt to say. It was a new title for her, one she had never heard of, but she would just as cheerily use it. She didn’t seem to get too caught up over the stumble, and his examination of her seemed not to bother her either.

“Ishgard? Oh, no! I’m originally from a place called Dravania. It’s to the west and a little bit north of Ishgard. The dragons of Dravania and the elezen of Ishgard were actually at war until quite recently.” She blinked at that, then continued cheerily.

“I left home and travelled aaaaaaaaall the way from continent Aldenard to Othard! I lived in a city called Kugane so that I could train with the strongest and best warrior in all of Hydaelyn.” Her eyes shine brightly as she explained the last bit.

“Sometimes my auntie Q’uila would invite me to the grand balls of Ishgard. She knows I like to dance and get all dressed up and spend time with Ser Aymeric and everyone of House Fortemps and even sometimes Ms. Kha would be there and that’s always fun because she would sometimes play violin or piano and of course having two warriors of light at any event - or even more!! - is always a treat...” She stopped to take a breath. Might be a good time to interject.

Ohhhh boy that is a lot of words and a lot of names he doesn't recognize and a lot of information that he's not even going to try to remember to make notes on later. He'll have to get it out of her again sometime; he suspects that won't be too terribly hard, now will it?

A good time to interject indeed; he jumps smoothly into that gap. "Well, if you like to dance and to get dressed up, the social's going to be right up your alley! I can't promise it'll be grand, but there should be plenty of folks there, and I hear Cassie's even asking the train to open the dressing car for us."

At mention that the dressing car was going to be opened so that everyone could even dress up her eyes dilated very much like a cat that just saw a laser pointer move. Her ears lifted in her excitement and her tail started to twitch.

"Really? We're gonna be able to actually dress up and look nice in addition to dance and all spend time together and get to know each other better?" Does her face ever start to hurt from how much and how big she smiled? The answer is no. Never.

"I'd say that really is grand!! And it will have the added bonus of not being as stuffy as the balls of Ishgard! They're all about tradition and stuff and they kinda lose some of the fun because of it." That is, they were often political affairs, ways for the Houses to put on airs and negotiate. Which was boring to a teenager who was not of their culture and was mostly there for the dancing and to spend time with her friends.

Devero's not that familiar with cats personally, but he does come from an Internet-forward culture, and even in the future, the Internet still loves cats. All of which is to say: he can tell she's excited, and her excitement is infectious. A matching smile blooms across his face.

He can't help but laugh. "I never understood that myself! Why host a big party with music and dancing if all anyone there wants to do is talk?" Sounds like he's been to his fair share of political affairs in his time.

Early Kazoo 2

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you know dev that's the most valid response to cherry i've ever read

;D