video; open to both courts

[digophelia]

[Alice is currently outside the stables once again, sprinting up to greet a small, white rabbit. The imp that's decided to become her company has made a point to turn on the locket, in the midst of a mild debate.]

Oh, not now, it can wait- Sophie!

[ It's no ordinary white rabbit, as it runs up to Alice when she greets her, Alice kneeling down beside a familiar grey mare.]

Sophie! I am so sorry, I didn't mean to leave you!

[ Alice picks her up and holds her up to look at her better. The imp is tugging on her hair gently and Alice is ignoring. ]

Miss, please-

No, it's alright, my friend, They need to eat first. Oh, surely you two like something other than hay?

[ Alice glances to the horse grazing behind her. Alice looks exhausted and even paler if it were possible. She feels more secure with the animals and the small imp that she talks a bit more freely than she would with others.]

Miss, I think you need to eat! They're already so well fed, don't you think?

No, it wouldn't feel right. They've both been so lonely, I think! I'll be fine, I-

[ Hold up, Alice pauses with the rabbit jumping out of her hands and grazing besides the horse. Alice shoots a look up to the imp above her head. Exasperation crosses over her face more than anger.]

For goodness sakes! I said I was fine!

If it makes you rest for yourself just once...!

Comments

[digophelia]

I will not lie, the London I came from is a place that I am not fond of. I do harbor ill feelings for it as well as have terrible memories of it. I came from Oxford originally and I miss it, it wasn't anything like London. Everything is cleaner.

[gordianknots]

Then I won't press the matter of London further. I've only been into Oxford one or two times for work, although I suspect it's closer to what you remember it being.

[digophelia]

I hope so! It as so very colorful and lush, much like this world, almost. Only here, it's much more clean. Is the university still there?

[gordianknots]

It's definitely still there. [Waver pauses. He has his iPhone, and the Station has internet access.]

If we end up at the station at the same time, I could show you.

[digophelia]

So it is! My father... he was the dean of Oxford up until his death. His name as Arthur Liddell.

[ She lights up automatically, straightening up and even pushing her dark hair out of her face. ]

Really? How?

[gordianknots]

Dean of the University, or one of the colleges therein?

[Waver's gotta take a beat to figure out how to parse this into 19th century vocabulary. The lockets are actually a better touchstone though.]

So, as of 2016, there's mobile phones that function similar to the lockets here. They can also take pictures, and access a network of information - meaning that my personal photographs are available on the screen, as well as those of others as long as the photographs are on the information network. I can type in words to search - like how text on these lockets work - and the images will be pulled up.

[digophelia]

[ A small smile creeps on her pale face, awkward and gone in a flash. ]

The Dean of Oxford University, yes.

[ She's happy to gloat about her father's intelligence even if it pains her, even to this day. Alice becomes a smidge impatient. ]

So I must wait until you arrive to the station to see the pictures?

[gordianknots]

[Waver lets out a low incredibly impressed whistle. That's a hell of a post for anyone to maintain.]

Christ. [He notes the smile too, and it's incredibly touching.]

Unless someone else in the Station has a way of accessing the internet--

[And that is information he really doesn't have.]

[digophelia]

[ Verily. As stressed as he was, he was always a good natured man who cared for his friends and family. Alice is left chewing the inside of her mouth thoughtfully as she painfully shoves the memory behind her. At least she's gotten better about moving past memories. ]

You mean there...?

[ The elf king mentioned that, but Alice never looked into it. She's about to bolt up and look for pictures already, glancing around helplessly as if she's trying to see the "internet" with her own eyes.

Perhaps, or rather in a book.

[gordianknots]

No the internet's...you need a specific compatible device to access it. I have one with me, because I was dragged here off the street walking home from work. It's like how you need to have a locket to communicate with everyone here.

[digophelia]

I see.

[ She can wait! Kind of. It'll be a lot like how Alice as a child waited for her father to bring back his ameatur photography. She's a little disappointed, but not in him.

She just wants to see to sate her curiosity. ]

Have you been to the station before, Mr. Waver?

[gordianknots]

I've been meaning to for a while but keep getting sidetracked by...nearly everything. [Libraries, research, pissing off Reynard, Redgate....]

[digophelia]

Surely you are doing so much more than playing the Queen's messenger!

[ That's too much. ]

[gordianknots]

[Waver laughs, a little.]

The Drabwurld's big. I'd like to research and understand it further before agreeing to do any more errands.

[digophelia]

Then what on earth do you do?

[ And here come the questions. ]

[gordianknots]

[Alice you're getting the most serious faced answer for this because it is God's honest truth.]

Well for the first several months I just sat in the library of Caer Scima, built myself a fortress of books, and proceeded to read every single one of them, then did it again with a whole new swath of books.

[digophelia]

[ And now Alice is picturing a man walled in by books. ]

Does that mean you're some sort of scholar?

[gordianknots]

[That's...yeah no, that's exactly what he did.]

I'm a professor of chemistry back home.

[digophelia]

Really? I would have pictured professors to be much older!

[ Her father was in his late 40s, after all. ]

[gordianknots]

I'm thirty-nine so, I'm getting there.

[digophelia]

I wouldn't have figured, you have no grey hairs!

[gordianknots]

Give me another month like the one at Redgate and you'll end up wrong!

[digophelia]

I don't think so! Not if you get proper rest and meals!

[gordianknots]

[Alice gets the gentle side eye, implying you mean the things you don't do for yourself?]

[digophelia]

[ What?

Alice would say she doesn't deserve it, not compared to the animals she's caring for. ]