unknownseas | Week 2

Entry tags:

round 3,
week 2

Week 2

Good morning, New Rapture. A new day is dawning.

It's now been a week since you were all captured. Perhaps you've already settled in. Perhaps you're already confident that you'll make it out of New Rapture alive. How serious about this could Mayor Fontaine possibly be, really?

While there still may not be much to do in your little hotel bubble, you've at least been granted a little more now - some kind of mysterious room and a sizeable library of all things. And in all the places you've looked so far, you've found valuable information, and even learned some of the story of New Rapture along the way.

Make sure to keep talking to the others! You want to keep those regain coins flowing, don't you?

SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY

[ ooc: Welcome to the second week of Unknown Seas Round 3! Please make sure to mark any investigation toplevels accordingly, and you can reach either Mayor Fontaine or Eleanor for conversations! ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ When Sunday comes around once more it feels abrupt and graceless, and Mielle can't believe they really have spent an entire week here under the so-called care of their Mayor Fontaine. Surely by now someone would have saved them or thought to look for them – but seven whole days have passed and they haven't heard a peep from the outside world. Mielle tries very hard not to think what that could mean for their safety should something happen. So... distracting herself is a safe bet.

As usual, you'll find her taking breakfast in the restaurant early in the morning – or well, attempting to take breakfast. She doesn't have any sort of an appetite for food right now but she'd ended up here out of habit and now she's just picking at this poor omelette that's going to go to waste.

When she eventually gives up on breakfast, she wanders up to the newly opened Floor 2 to look around - it isn't much, but anywhere new after seven days of staring at the same four walls is a breath of... fresher air. She spends a bit of time in the meeting room mostly just to keep Jonathan company before heading over to the library. It's a little overwhelming, honestly – the Count had shelves of books walling his office but she'd known since she was a child that his personal library was largely for show. She's never seen a library this big or so many books in one place.

She wonders if Cain and Oscar had access to a library like this at the Academy – then reminds herself that she really does not want to think too hard about Cain right now.

So, back to distracting herself it is. If you happen to come across Mielle in the library, she'll be wandering a little aimlessly – but when she realizes she's not alone, she breaks into a small smile. ]

Would you mind giving me a recommendation? There's so many to choose from, I can't quite decide where to start.

Sure. What kind of books do you like to read back home?

[Because she could just recommend something pretty much anyone would like, but it's always nice to tailor a recommendation a little.]

Mm, for the most part, I've been studying the sorts of things I'll need to know to properly represent House Roscent in the future.

[ Or as much as her father would think was appropriate for studying, anyway. ]

But even outside of my studies, I've found history books quite fascinating recently as well.

History books, huh?

[Joy quickly scans the shelf, looking for something she saw earlier. She pulls down a book and hands it over.]

This is technically historical fiction, but it's based on actual history.

[It's also, like... not good? But Joy suspects that if you don't know it's a Hamilton cash grab, it's better.]

Oh, that might be interesting too!

[ She takes the book and quickly flips it over so she can read the blurb – and brightens even more. ]

And it's a romance, too! I've always been curious to read one, but I've never had the chance. Are there any others you'd recommend?

There's actually two more in that series once you finish that one.

[Joy points at them, because she doesn't want to load Mielle up with books as she's pointing out stuff.]

And I've also heard good things about this one, which is in the same sort of genre.

[It's Girl with a Pearl Earring.]

Hm, I think I'll begin with this series and then come back and try some of the others.

[ She hugs the book to her chest with a little smile. ]

Reading books from a world entirely unlike my own... it's quite exciting! There must be all manner of books the likes of which I could never even imagine on my own.

Books and other media are the things that change the most from world to world, in my experience. Something about all the little changes from place to place makes the things everyone is concerned with shift drastically.

[Just. Casually says this like she has experience with it.]

It does seem in line with what I've seen for myself so far. Even those whose behaviours seem familiar come from worlds quite different from my own.

[ She tilts her head, eyeing Joy with some curiosity. And then, misunderstanding just a touch – ]

Have you been reading all sorts of books, then? I imagine after reading enough of them, the differences would jump out quite readily.

Yeah. Like, Jonathan's journals are a pretty popular book where I'm from, but I guess in worlds where he doesn't exist those don't exist either and romance from dimension to dimension is so different... That sort of stuff is interesting to me.

[It's why she initially loved her job.]

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Oh... hm.

[ Mielle, the poor sweet child, is tapping the worst possible well right now! Nandor has gone to look for Twilight, because of course he has, and somehow he's ended up going through like 20 Fear Street Superchillers and the entire bibliography of Christopher Pike. ]

... Do the kids still read Rumi these days?

[ actually they just paste faux deep misattributed quotations on top of a picture of a sunset to instagram ]

Rumi...?

[ She mulls over the name for a moment, then shakes her head. ]

The name isn't familiar, but... if it's your recommendation, I'd be happy to try it!

[ HONEY YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING ]

Eh, it is fine. I was never much for poetry to begin with, and now it's like, "okay, we get it, calm down with the Sufism"... but for a while he was very much the big thing.

[ Wait, can he say Sufism? Obviously it's not the same as saying God, but even discussing mysticism of any kind tends to give vampires the heebie-jeebies. Strange, how it just came out without forethought. ]

What do you usually read?

Mm, usually it's the sort of thing I'm assigned by my tutors. I'd already learned the sort of etiquette a girl my age would be studying by the time I was quite young, so we've been focusing on the history of our country most recently.

[ History books about other worlds might be interesting, but now he's got her thinking about poetry... ]

It has been a while since I've enjoyed any poetry, though. Are there any poets you count among your favourites?

Hmm.

[ Having a nice beard and mustache situation is an extremely helpful shortcut sometimes! Like, if you stroke your beard in silence, it seems like you might be actually thinking about something instead of struggling to remember the name of the gentlemen poet who composed the Hustle. ]

The trouble is that nowadays, most poets are more of a balladeer, singer-songwriter type of thing. They set their verses to music, so it really must be listened to for the full effect. You got, you know, your Robert Seger—

[ This, of course, makes him think of Gail, so he's quick to move on and come up with as many names as possible! Like, not even musicians he particularly cares for, just whatever pops up into his head. ]

—your Stephen Wonders, your William Ocean, your Lady Gaga [ he says guh-gah ], the bard formerly known as Prince... all kinds of stuff. Oh, there was a good one that came out very recently. Very talented young lady, really pulled at the heartstrings. And her name was...

[ claire, you knew this was going to happen ]

... Billy Eyelash!

[ Though it causes me, the human behind the screen, physical pain to read this tag, Mielle simply nods along with bright eyed interest as if this isn't all a concentrated psychological attack to anyone who so happens to overhear it. ]

Bards and poets all have such unusual names, don't they? Though, I imagine you might have to be an unusual sort of person to be able to dedicate so much of your life to poetry and music.

[ She really thinks he 100% knows what he's talking about. God help us. ]

Perhaps we'll be fortunate and gain access to more of the city – there could be facilities for listening to those sorts of things, just as we have the library here.

...Doing okay there, Princess?

[Obi's sympathetic smile is interrupted by a yawn, which he's at least polite enough to cover. His own tray's loaded pretty heavily for breakfast, but he hovers for a moment anyway, genuinely waiting for her answer before he heads off to a table of his own.]

Obi...

[ Mielle glances up from picking (admittedly very daintily) at her food to give him a weary smile. ]

I was just lost in my thoughts, I suppose. I'd realized this morning marks an entire week of our being here and... it just struck me how strange that was. I've been quite unable to stop thinking about it.

Ah, I understand. Need a distraction, then? I’ve been told I’m good at that.

[Translation: he’s been told he’s annoying.]

I wouldn't be averse, necessarily, but... you're on your way to breakfast yourself, aren't you? I wouldn't want to take up too much of your time.

[ Knowing Obi, he can probably easily multitask on eating and being annoying, but still. ]

[Wow! Absolutely correct.]

Well, this is more like dinner or a midnight meal for me, but I'm happy to sit and eat with you if you'd like.

So, you've been keeping to a nighttime schedule...? – ah, please do sit!

[ She gestures for him to take the unoccupied seat at the table. ]

I suppose it would be rather easy to slip into a different schedule without any natural light...

[Then sit he does.]

It's my natural habit, actually. I've had to compromise it a bit over the last couple years, since My Lady's an early riser and I follow where she goes, but it's surprisingly easy to return to it here.

So you'd prefer to be awake at night, then?

[ That's a bit of a surprise. Maybe it's because she's so used to her own strictly ordered schedule that she can't really imagine flipping the whole thing on its head. ]

Don't you find it becomes... lonely? If no one else is awake.

I think of it more like an adventure! The whole world's different at night. You get to see all sorts of things that don't show up by the light of day.

[What... things, Obi...]

And it's not as though I miss all the daylight hours. I've always turned up where I'm needed and squeezed in naps where I can.