riverviewlogs | introductory mingle: SAMPREMI

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introductory mingle: SAMPREMI

who: everyone in Riverview!
what: Introductory Log and Sampremi Celebration
when: March 8th - March 15th
where: In several different locations in the downtown area of the Inhabited City.
warnings: please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines

sampremi celebration

In the days leading up to March 8th, new residents may notice advertising around the city, everywhere from digital screens to paper flyers pasted on blank walls, featuring the name of the spring holiday in celebration of new beginnings, new love, and lust: Sampremi. The advertising mentions that there will be street festivals set up at various locations throughout the week and lists where the market will be set up on each day.

street market

The main draw of the holiday is a roaming street market that features special treats and street food that can only be found during Sampremi, a bustling bargain market with any kind of goods you can think of, and fair games that allow a person to win a prize for that special someone.

i. street food

One of the major draws of the festival is the special street food that can only be obtained this time of year. Almost everything you can buy at the Sampremi Festival is meant to be shared - whether it's one piece of meat on two sticks or desserts baked with a narrow part in the middle for convenient tearing, everything is built in twos. The stalls sell everything from cups of soup, sandwiches, roasted or fried meat, deep-fried vegetables and cakes, dumplings, donuts, bagels, turnovers, and anything else you can think of.

Many of the savory dishes are based on the meat of a particular fowl native to the moon Riverview is situated on that has a taste and texture halfway between chicken and duck, cooked to be spicy (ranging from very mild to throat-burning). Many of the desserts are based around a fruit native to the moon that is spherical, red-orange, and has a light sweet taste that is similar to a combination of mango, pineapple, and strawberry. Both ingredients are considered to be aphrodisiacs. Of course, the foods aren't actually aphrodisiacs and any effect is purely placebo.

ii. fair games

The festival features an entire row of fair games ranging from very high-tech games featuring virtual reality and neon holograms to extremely old-fashioned games with darts and balloons or balls and glasses. The games all have prizes in various shapes and sizes, with the standard stuffed animals, but also with goods and special items donated by any business in the city; ranging from tiny prizes to huge and expensive ones.

Due to the nature of the holiday, many of the stalls are set up to cater to winning a prize for your partner, and due to the nature of the Quarantine, a lot of them involve aiming or other aspects of pretending to fight.

iii. shopping

Originally, the part of the street festival that involved an actual market, with stalls and booths set up with goods, was aimed primarily at romantic trinkets like flowers or jewelry, gifts intended to be purchased for a loved one. As time has gone by, however, this aspect of the market has increased, with many businesses participating, though the emphasis is still on small businesses and anything relating to local culture rather than booths for any of the larger more corporate businesses.

There is still plenty of jewelry to be found, for sure, mostly handmade and artisan, but the scope of the Market has widened immeasurably. The Sampremi Market is an excellent place to find specialty foods, clothing, jewelry, art, or other goods that were originally native to cultures on other planets in this reality, or other realities altogether. Many residents in the city use the market to share their unique cultural goods and traditional dress with others.

iv. adult

In a side alley of the Sampremi Market on any day, one can find an area roped off with a red silken cord, attended by members of the Perimeter Guard in casual dress who will ID anyone entering to make sure they are 18+. Once characters are permitted entry, they will find all of the adult offerings that the market has to offer.

Since Sampremi is, historically, a celebration of lust and physical love, the adult offerings are all set up to cater to two or more people of any sex or gender configuration. One can find an adult or sexualized version of almost anything that's featured in the main market, from fair games to adult goods to street food laced with actual aphrodisiacs (there are always warnings for food spiked in this way to avoid accidental consumption).

v. roommates or wildcard

Feel free to use this prompt to set up headers for a communal floor, or threads open to roommates for the purpose of getting to know each other. Or if you have an idea for a prompt that isn't in this list, set at the Sampremi Festival, feel free to write it up!

visual inspiration

click on thumbnails for larger view

Credit (left to right): Theo Prins, andreasrocha @ tumblr, hrormir @ deviantart, nkabuto @ deviantart

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Well, that requires her to find someone else to hand the prize off to, and that means talking to strangers. At least she and this man have said some words to each other. That means they aren't total strangers, yes? And so she quickly selects a small stuffed bear holding a heart, just so the vendor and the person behind her in line aren't waiting. Once she has it in hand, she moves out of the way in time to see Derek extend his hand. Like a lady of her age, she dips into another curtsy and places her fingertips lightly against his palm, not in a handshake, but in a way that suggests she's used to men kissing her hand when they ask for it.

"Thank you. My name is Cecelia Wynn. Might I know your last name, sir? Or do you not wish to be called by it?" That's the case with Lola, who insists on her first name, but to Cecelia, using Christian names is far too familiar.

Two curtsies in his entire life, he's seen now, and they've all been within the last few minutes. He can see that she's looking for a kiss to the top of her hand based on the way she's responded to his offer for a handshake, but in his time, that suggests something more intimate, probably, than it does in her mind. So he gives her hand an awkward shake in an attempt to sort of meet in the middle before he drops his arm back to his side again.

"You're welcome. It's nice to meet you, Cecelia," he replies. It doesn't occur to him at all that it could make her uncomfortable for him to use her first name, given she's offered it. "Oh, uh...Hale. Derek Hale, but I don't think anybody has ever called me Mr. Hale, so...I don't know. That sounds weird. Derek is fine with me," he tells her, nodding to invite her to walk with him as he starts to move a little ways away from the game booth so that they're not clogging up the area for others who want to take their turns.

Wetting his lips and brow creased in thought, Derek pauses before he actually speaks again. When he does, it sounds genuinely curious. "This might sound really weird to you, but...what year was it for you? Back home, I mean?"

He's still not completely sold on the whole idea of time travel but if Allison Argent can live and breathe in the Alpha Complex, then maybe anything is possible. This woman does not look like she's from the twenty-first century, that's for sure.

A handshake. Right. Cecelia really needs to learn to read these signals and react accordingly, instead of always falling back on what's familiar. Familiar is comfortable, but it certainly makes her in the minority here. She knows her society's rules are not this society's rules. The question is how far she's willing to step outside of her own. At the moment, it's not very far.

She nods at his preference. It will be weird on her end to use such a familiar form of address, but can she force him to do less? If he is Derek to her, should she not be Cecelia to him? It's so hard to know what to do in a place so foreign.

"Ah, it was eighteen hundred and fifteen A.D. I know that is much earlier than many others I have met so far." She offers him a bit of a smirk, because she knows that there is plenty that's beyond her right now. Running water, the microwave, those scary glass walled elevators in communal housing; all of it.

Dark eyebrows shoot up with surprise at her answer. He could tell she was potentially from a long time ago — or at least really into period stuff from a long time ago — but 1815, yeah. She's a little out of her time if this place is anywhere near Derek's time. About two hundred years behind, give or take.

"Oh wow, yeah...it, uh...was 2015 for me," he confesses, reaching his hand to rub the back of his neck. Now the curtsy, the body language, asking for his last name; all of it makes sense. It dawns on him that his having been all up in her business to tell her about the rigging of the game was probably perceived as incredibly rude and maybe getting fresh with her.

"I...I'm really sorry, you know..." he gestures back toward the game. "That was kind of forward and, you know what, I didn't even think about it? That's my fault, my apologies."

Two hundred years difference. She isn't even shocked anymore. Not after meeting some of her roommates and hearing the same from them.

"I do wonder why so many of you are from after the year two thousand," she muses. "Does something happen to the world that causes you to all wish for an escape from it? If what the greeters here say is true, of course." Cecelia could believe it in her case. Life was quite dismal at home and she did want to get away from it all.

"I appreciate the apology, but I feel allowances can be made in cases such as these." This is accompanied by a gentle smile, to assure him it's all right. "I take it you already know that there were certain rules that were followed in society where I am from, and yet in your time, those rules have changed? Or perhaps been loosened in their rigidity. I feel I cannot fault people from your time for not following the rules from mine."

Shaking his head, Derek gives a facial shrug to indicate that, to his knowledge, there shouldn't be anything that would facilitate this from so many people in such a small window of time. "I don't know about everyone else; I wasn't home. And yeah, I definitely wanted out of where I was before," he says, frowning. Granted, if he'd been home, he would've wanted out just as badly. It isn't like Beacon Hills is so great. ...but Alcide and Buffy were both from worlds with the supernatural, too. Hie eyebrows cock a little in thought.

"...you know, actually, maybe you're onto something, though." As in, perhaps supernatural activity exponentially increased in two hundred years. It isn't all that illogical, when he considers it. That would explain, he supposes, if everyone here, or at least a good portion of the people here, have some connection to a world not unlike his own. "We'd have to ask around."

He appreciates that she accepts his apology, in spite of the fact that it doesn't assuage his guilt. Personal space was a lot more important back then, if the movies he's seen are any indication. "Loosened, probably, more than changed. But time changes everything...you must feel pretty out of your element. I don't know a lot about your time, just little things here and there from the History Channel or movies set in that period. I know that your time and the way I grew up were incredibly different, if what I've seen is accurate. I was raised in a culture where women make the rules and call the shots. So that makes me feel even worse for getting in your personal bubble like that," he confesses, looking apologetic all over again.

"It does seem quite the personal question to be asking, though, doesn't it?" Of course, she asked him first, but now in retrospect, she isn't sure it's polite to go prying. "To ask if someone was unhappy with their life?" Cecelia gives her head a shake. If Derek wants to go ahead with finding this out, he's welcome to, but propriety is going to keep her from it. Especially since she knows she was unhappy with her life at home, and can sympathize with what that feels like.

"Oh, Mr Hale-- Derek," she begins, extending a hand to hopefully cut off any more apologies. "You are most kind to think of my feelings in such a manner! But I assure you, I am not upset at your behavior. The fact that you wish to make such apologies shows that you are a very polite and thoughtful man. If it would help matters, then I forgive you completely." She smiles in the hopes that things are settled.

"Now if you would be so kind, would you teach me a little about your time? Perhaps starting with the History Channel? To me, a channel is a body of water, but context suggests you mean something else. Oh, and movies! Someone else mentioned movies to me, and I quite forgot to ask what those are."

Nodding, Derek is willing to acknowledge that that specific question, yes, is pretty personal. "That's not the pattern I would be looking for, though, necessarily," he points out. He isn't going to come out and say that he'd be looking to learn whether people who are here experienced weird and exceptionally stressful environments back home. Their own lives and the happiness or lack thereof personally is inconsequential to him. Some people, like perhaps McCall's pack, have the ability to push away the bad and focus on the good once they've won the battle. People like that would not necessarily, Derek thinks, be unhappy with their lives, but they could still have been in stressful environments. Something like that could make a person subconsciously wish to be somewhere else. "Don't you ever think about thinks just in passing and never really latch onto the feeling? 'I wish I'd done that differently. Oh well, it's over with,'" he suggests as an example. "I don't know, I have another pattern in mind. It's just a matter of finding a way to ask that makes sense without being entirely direct. I'm not that great at that sort of thing." He'll probably ask Buffy and Alcide for help.

Her insistence that his apologies aren't necessary makes Derek smile. He can take a hint. She appreciates where he's coming from and doesn't require groveling; in fact, it looks as though she would prefer to avoid it and would like to nip it in the bud. "I appreciate that, thank you," he says with a nod. With that, he's willing to let it drop.

Clearing his throat, Derek's eyebrows lift slightly only to fall again just as quickly as he considers that request. It might be easier to explain things to her if he had more knowledge of her time since he tends to explain things by offering parallels for comparison. Without knowledge about her time and culture, he can't do that very effectively. But all the same, he nods his head again, motioning away from where they're standing, an attempt to ask her to follow him as he wanders away from the game so that they're not blocking the way for more people who might want to play. "I could try, anyway. Okay, so...can't start with the History Channel if you don't know what movies are, so let's start there and I'll work my way back?" he asks, wanting to make sure she doesn't mind him going out of order before he gets started. "And, as a preface, I wouldn't consider my word as law when I try to explain things; I'm probably not going to be very good at it, so ask questions and then probably get second opinions from others," he adds with a little huff of amusement.

Derek is right in saying he's not great at that sort of thing, because she thinks the question he asks her is pretty direct, and she's glad she doesn't have to answer it as he moves on. It seems far too personal to reveal her troubles from the last few months; about her husband's death and the gossip about it spreading far and wide. Women coming to the house with sympathetic faces, only to lean in close and try to encourage Cecelia to tell them what really happened. It felt like she was slowly drowning under the stares and whispers. She had wanted desperately to get away. And here she has.

She moves to walk beside him, taking short, fast steps under her skirt, because the cut of the dress tends to tangle around her legs, which are far shorter than his and makes it hard to keep up.

"All right. Movies." She looks up at him with a smile to put him at ease. "I am sure I will be asking questions of everyone. You needn't feel pressured."

Noticing the way that Cecelia seems to fall just slightly behind when she tries to follow, Derek slows his steps a bit. Maybe it's that he's taller or that she's fighting with the skirt, but he can see that he hadn't been making it terribly easy for her, so he makes an effort to, moving forward. The fact that she doesn't answer his rhetorical question is lost on him because he'd considered it exactly that: rhetorical.

Smiling back a little, Derek nods down to her. "That does actually take the pressure off, I'll have you know," he comments playfully. "All right, so movies...uh... You have photographs, right? Or maybe that's a little later in your century... Okay, paintings. I know you have those," he starts, because he might as well start with something she's familiar with and stoke her imagination toward something that might come close to what he's trying to explain. If he tries to just explain it flat out without giving her something familiar to compare it to, then he'll be doing no better than trying to describe colors to a blind man.

"Imagine, say, a painting of a scene in a marketplace or something. Lots of people, lots of colors; vendors and customers, maybe there's a dog," he suggests, for a start. Derek pauses to give her a moment to picture it. "Then, imagine if that painting was moving. People in it were walking and talking. The dog is barking and stealing a piece of bread when a vendor is too distracted talking to a customer. Someone tosses an apple to a friend. Another person is shouting at a misbehaving child. Maybe a small group of people are arguing...or laughing. But when you look at the painting, you can see and hear all of that happening, it isn't just a still image."

Derek pauses again to let that idea sort of soak in and he smiles. "That's like a movie. Except, with a movie, instead of the image being painted, it's photographed, which means...for example, if someone pointed a video camera at you and I right now while we're walking and talking, they would be able to record that: they could play back the two of us walking and talking whenever they wanted. With a movie, they take a story and they act it out like in the theatres...and they just put it on film so that people can watch it over and over, sometimes in the comfort of their own home, instead of always having to go to the theatre to watch it live. Make sense?"

The pains he takes to not confuse her as he explains are noted by Cecelia and definitely appreciated. Coming through the Portal to this land had been like entering a dream, but how could it be a dream of her own when her mind couldn't even fathom such wonders? This place has so much to show her and she wants to catch up with others who already seem to understand it, so this is a good start. She nods along to show him she's following, and when he finishes, she gives a polite smile.

"You have explained it quite well, Mr-- Derek, I mean. Had I not been taught to use the talking devices, I might still be a little confused, but now that I have seen others' moving images on my device, I understand what you mean. Now, the part where I can watch it over and over? That is interesting. It would be like a... a memory, recounted later in my head, would it not? Well, not quite that, but I understand that when I talk to someone on my device, it is like talking to them through a window. They are right there on the other side in that moment. But those moments can be preserved too!"

Derek nods, glad that he hasn't managed to confuse her more than help her understand the concept. Trying to explain something new to someone isn't something Derek has had to do an awful lot. Usually, there are visual references right in front of him to offer up, be they a horrible demonstration he's showing someone from the shadows, like the time he showed Scott how dangerous it is to be an Omega in Beacon Hills, or whether it's a book or article. So this is new territory and he's relieved to know he's gotten his point across without frustrating her completely.

"Something like that, yeah," Derek replies. "Lately, filmmakers have been taking to adapting books into movies so that you can see the things you've read. I personally don't prefer them; I like books better, but a lot of people like having a visual medium to bring alive the world they've imagined while they're reading a book. There are documentaries that are basically films about real things so that people can learn about history or nature or social economics or politics, or whatever they want. "

Derek takes a deep breath and wrinkles his nose a little. "I'm not a huge fan of that stuff, the technology that it takes to do the whole device we've got, but...I mean, I'm not knocking it. It's definitely useful." He just...prefers the days when a flip phone was fine and phone calls were more prevalent than text messaging. He's kind of old fashioned like that. ...if that can even be considered old fashioned in the context of this conversation, which it probably can't. "I do like that you can preserve it, though. That comes in useful as well."

Clearing his throat, he pauses before trying to decide how to explain the History Channel, since she did ask about that, as well. "So going back to the question about the History Channel. You've got movies, which are filmed and then played usually at theaters first, projected onto a huge screen for everyone to see, and then they can be made into DVD, which is a little device that's super compact and makes it possible for people to play those same movies right in their own home on a thing called a television. Television also has channels, different, uh...like...okay, going back to the plays. You have different theatres where different plays go on. Channels on television are sort of like that. Each network is a company — like a theatre company — which has their own channels — like theatres — which then puts on their own programming — like the plays. The History Channel just shows all kinds of stuff that happened in history. From back before your time, straight through a few decades ago in my time. Documentaries about different historical events; wars, politics, things like that. That way, people can try to learn from their history even when they're not learning it in school, or if they aren't in school anymore."

Now the information is piling up and it's getting to be a bit much. She won't recall what DVDs are after a few minutes, but she has the main gist of all this. In the future, people have a type of entertainment that's like a play, only it's like a memory you can show yourself again and again. Then there are different "channels" that show different plays all the time.

"Fascinating," she says, her eyes bright and focused. "It is good of you to take the time to tell me all this." Her gaze shifts away towards their surroundings before a thought occurs to her and she looks back at him.

"Are those things here in Riverview? The theaters for movies and the channels?" If so, she would love to be able to see these plays firsthand. After all, Derek is going to a great deal of trouble to properly explain it all to her in her own terms. It would be nice if she could witness what he was explaining and could tell him how well he'd done so.

Derek gives her a sheepish sort of smile, reaching up to rub the back of his neck. "It's good of you to not look at me like I have three heads, because I can imagine you probably feel a bit like that right now. Sorry, that's probably a lot all at once when you don't really have reference points, yet," he says, looking appropriately apologetic. Hey, he did warn her that he didn't think he would be terribly good at this, so he does have that to fall back on, he supposes. That doesn't make it easier for her to have to digest all the information he's throwing at her, though. It seemed less complicated before he said it out loud.

To her question, Derek takes pause. He hasn't actually...well. He hasn't checked, come to think of it. "You know, I don't know? I mean, probably. If not the exact things I've said — movies and television channels, I mean — then probably some variation of it, based on the technology they've given us. They're up to date, in any case, so I would think so, but I haven't actually looked around or checked. I'm really more of a book guy than anything else, so it hasn't really occurred to me to look into that sort of entertainment yet..." he admits.

He gives a thoughtful facial shrug then. He could look now, probably, if she felt like it. It isn't like he has any other plans, anyway, and unless she does, it might be a good use of their time. "I'm not doing anything right now...if you're not, either, we could always go look?" he offers.

If only he knew what strange turns her life had taken up to this point. Sure, plenty of things surprise her or confuse her, but she's certainly not going to look at him like he's crazy. He'd probably think she was the crazy one if she told him she'd been bitten by a wolf and cursed to turn into a feral beast every full moon.

"Well, up to date inasmuch as having what you recognize. Perhaps there are things here from both our futures as well." Wouldn't that be interesting? Something beyond two hundred years in her future!

"I think that is a marvelous idea! You have been such a wonderful guide into these matters thus far, and I would be pleased to accompany you on the search."

"Well, yes," Derek concedes. He hasn't really thought about that a whole lot because technology isn't really his thing. Unless something thrusts it upon him, the likelihood that he'll recognize future tech is pretty low, but she does have a good point there. "That's a fair point. But, point being...if they're at least up to date with what I recognize, then I'm sure they have movies around here somewhere. We'd just have to find them," he assures her with a warm smile.

Her quick response and enthusiasm has Derek smiling. He's probably smiled more in the past twenty four hours than he did the whole three weeks in the Complex and, before that, well. Beacon Hills hadn't really given him much to smile about over the past decade or so, really.

"All right, well, let's go check it out then. There's bound to be something around here somewhere," he says and, because it wouldn't exactly be conducive to lose her in the crowd, he offers her an arm.

Oh, he knows of offering a lady his arm! Some things do transcend time and place, don't they? Pleased, she slips her hand around the crook of his elbow.

"And if we should find there is not such a thing, at least we were able to better explore this place." She's still getting used to the size of the place and all it has to offer. She's quite sure it's bigger than London, though she can't know how London will grow from her time of dirt lanes to the city of Derek's future. But the restaurants, malls, and other sources of entertainment are far more vast than she's ever seen before. It feels like it will takes months to explore it all.

Grinning, Derek nods as he looks back at her. "Yeah, exactly," he agrees. And, to Derek, there's nothing better than having a legitimate reason to be looking around and taking in the surroundings. He does it anyway, but it's easier if he's got an excuse to do it beyond the fact that he's interested to know as much as possible about where he is. This way, he has a goal in mind; he's looking for something in particular and if he doesn't find it, well, he's learned what there is around in the mean time.

"So what's it like when you came from? I mean, where are you from, anyway? I might be kind of a history buff, but admittedly I really only pay much attention to twentieth century history, so I don't know much about your time period at all," he says, sounding almost apologetic amongst the genuine curiosity and interest in his query.

"Goodness, how do I start?" she asks with a hint of a smile. It feels strange to talk about her life since she's lived it, and it's all in the past to him anyway. His life is a complete unknown because it's in the future.

"I reside at Bantry House in Lancashire County, England. I was born in 1784 in Yorkshire. My husband Thomas passed away six months ago in a hunting accident in Scotland." Which is the story that had been told, but that no one wanted to believe. They wanted to get to the root of the mystery, which set Cecelia on edge so much that she longed for an escape from her life.

"I live a quiet life. I have been to London to properly come out into society, but it was far too loud and busy for me. Yet now I am in a place that feels ten times as busy!" She lets out a chuckle and raises her gaze to the buildings surrounding them.

"Let's see, what else... we were at war with the French, but we defeated Napoleon at Waterloo and we are sure he will surrender soon. We certainly do not have even half the things you see here. These buildings are massive! Our tallest are probably no more that three or four stories tall? Our streets are dirt or cobblestone, we have no bathrooms like there are here, and no electrically run things either. I still do not know how a microwave functions. Everything here seems so... fast. Perhaps that is not the right word but cooking is fast, bathing is fast, talking to others is fast. At home cooking takes hours or all day. We write letters that take days to be delivered. We take things slow."

Derek could have guessed that she was from England based on the accent, but then again, he imagines that most Americans had that same accent back then. It isn't like she was from terribly far off from the early colonizers, after all. His brow creases with sympathy when she says that her husband was killed. "I'm sorry," he says sincerely. He knows what it feels like to lose people he loves. Maybe not on the same level as a husband and wife, but he's lost more people than he's been allowed to keep, so grief is no stranger to Derek Hale. He imagines that's the reason why she's here. There were times when Derek would have done anything to escape his grief after Paige's death, after the fire, after Laura, after Erica and Boyd. All he managed was to learn that once you start running, you can't ever stop, and the pain never really leaves you.

To her comment about the business of this place, Derek laughs a little. "Yeah I can imagine that must be a little jarring by comparison," he agrees with a little smirk. This place is bustling and he wonders whether anywhere was as busy as this back in the 1800s if it wasn't right smack in the middle of a war. Somehow, he doubts it. Everything must have been largely quieter and more reserved back then. To Derek, that sounds peaceful. But then...he's on the outside looking in and the grass is always greener, as the saying goes.

His eyebrows lift and eyes widen a little with surprise. He'd completely forgotten that she's from a time period that did, in fact, have some pretty famous wars and battles and he huffs a surprised laugh at the mention of Napoleon. He's seen shows on the History Channel about Waterloo...Cecelia has actually been there. "Sorry, just...yeah, he'll surrender in July," he says with a crooked sort of grin. He's talking to someone who lived in the times he's only ever and will only ever be able to watch on the television in documentaries once in a while. It's kind of it's own brand of incredible. "Sometimes I wish things were still slow," he tells her. "Everything being this fast is convenient, don't get me wrong, but...it can also be really exhausting to keep up with," he adds.

It isn't that he's ignoring her point that she doesn't know how a microwave works, but well. Neither does Derek. Not really, anyway. He knows you put food in, set a timer, turn it on, and when it's done, the food is ready, but he doesn't know how it works, or anything. He's never bothered to find out or ask. "Modern times are so busy wondering if they can do things, sometimes they don't stop and wonder whether or not they actually should. Sure, cell phones make it easier to talk to people when you're on the go...but they also make it easier for people to hack in and steal your identity by way of personal information. Or for foreign militaries to spy on one another. Every advancement has its risk-reward factor. I always wondered whether I would like it if I'd been from a long time ago. When things were more simplified and slow and maybe there were more wars, but...your wars were fought with swords and muskets, and canons. Ours are fought with atomic bombs and nuclear weapons. One wrong move in a modern war could end the entire Earth as we know it, so it's like, congratulations on winning the battle while obliterating the whole planet..." he sighs.

"Oh! Now, you see that is so strange to hear you say that. You know what happens, while I can only guess. It makes me want to know everything, but then I worry I might know too much! Should I hear all about the future, or will it be more than I can take? I cannot say." Like all these wonderful inventions she sees. How did they come about and did people love them at first, or hate them? Electric lights must have put candle makers out of business. Did microwaves oust household cooks? History is more than simple facts written in black and white.

As he goes on, she starts to think her instincts were right. Does she really want to hear about all these things if such terrible things can result from it?

"Goodness! You have weapons that powerful? How horrid."

It's something Derek can't say he's ever really had a chance to think about. In spite of all the supernatural happenings around him as long as he's been able to remember it, Derek's never really faced anyone who could definitively tell him the future. He wishes he could identify with it so that he could offer her advice one way or the other, but he can only speculate. "I don't know, it's not your future specifically, so much as just...the future, so it's a lot to take in at once. I probably shouldn't have said, actually, but it sort of slipped out," he replies, having the grace to look sheepish for his mistake.

To her response, Derek nods. "Yeah, tell me about it. The sorts of weapons we have now are too powerful. The world is a ticking time bomb, now. But, I mean, on the other hand, there's really great things about advancements, too. Like in the medical field. There's things we can do now that probably were completely off the radar in your time. Medications, surgical procedures. There's good with the bad, but yeah, it's a lot."

He stops walking then, approaching what looks to be a security guard at the festival as they're on their way out of it and he asks for directions to anything that might resemble a theater. Derek is pleased to learn that there is, in fact, such a thing and he smiles over at Cecelia. "All right, this way. Hopefully they'll have something of interest playing. I haven't been to the movies, Jesus...since I was in high school."

"There are so many things you say that I do not understand," she says with a shake of her head. "Through no fault of your own, mind you." She doesn't want him feeling guilty about it, or trying to change the way he speaks simply for her, but what is "the radar," anyway?

Looking up at him, she smiles and nods her head, making a mental note that apparently people in his time are more liberal with using the name Jesus as an exclamation. It's not that people never said oh, God! in her time as well, but it was usually in extreme situations.

"When did your education end? And how old are you now?"

Derek's forgotten himself for a moment. There are going to be plenty of things he says as second nature that make reference to things she won't understand. Her point reminds him to pay closer attention to things. "Oh, sorry... I promise not to be offended if you want to ask for clarification," he replies warmly. "I imagine sometimes things that seem second nature for me might reference things with which you're not familiar and that's not very fair if I'm trying to help you learn, right?"

He hums a little, frowning. The last year of high school had been in a whole new school across the country. He doesn't like to think about that adjustment period on top of everything else he'd been going through at the time. "I graduated high school when I was seventeen. Now I'm twenty-seven," he replies. "I never went to college or anything."

It hadn't ever interested him. Very few things did back then, because he was still largely wrapped up in his own grief and the lethargy that had come with it had been stifling.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

introductory mingle: SAMPREMI

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