fandomhighdorms | LBJ Campfire, Monday Evening

Current Mood: relaxed

Entry tags:

LBJ Campfire, Monday Evening

Chuck didn't know who started the campfire outside his cabin but he was glad that someone did. He was capable of working a lighter but that whole Boy Scout-y wood and newspaper in the optimal fire starting position thing was lost on him. So when people did the hard stuff for him he was appreciative. Silently appreciative. He wasn't about to be thanking people out loud.

Now he was sitting back against a log with a joint in his hand and was debating going back inside the cabin to grab marshmallows. Maybe after the munchies set in.

[Open! You will keep me entertained whilst I wait for the Gossip Girl finale]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Private detective. Consulting," Jack said, studying the girl. "You're very curious about me -- or is it everyone?"

He was also a tad nervous, in truth. If her stepfather (or something like that) were police in a world where being a vampire was illegal, that could so easily mean trouble.

Dinah looked briefly embarrassed, turning pink, then had to grin. "Everybody, honestly. If I'm being too nosy for you, just tell me to stop and I'll bibble at you about Fandom teal deer or furred fish, or hush up. I want to be a private detective when I graduate college, so I get really interested in people in the same line of work, too."

"It's not too much," Jack assured her, even though it kind of was. "Sebastien's been in his line of work a long time; I'll introduce you if he ever visits."

Sebastien might kill him for it, but that would be the funny part. "Now, bibble at me about the odd livestock."

Dinah laughed, then grinned at him again. "There are fish with fur deep in the Preserve, and tiny blue deer you can attract by talking too much." She shrugged, looking mischievous. "I had a lot of them following me once. Got them on camera for the class I was taking."

"But could you tell they were blue on the film?" Jack asked, thinking he was being clever.

No one had showed him color film yet.

"Sure." Dinah gave him a puzzled look for a second, then blinked. "Oh, do you guys not have color film yet? Or does it have to be tinted?"

"Hand-colored," Jack nodded. "We have photography, but not in color."

[OOC: Crashing, night!]

Dinah tilted her head. "I think we got color film about... sixty years ago? Or so. I didn't even ask, what year is it where you're from?"

[ooc: Niiiight! SP yay!]

"I think this is the first time I've forgotten to say," Jack remarked. "It's 1899."

"Wow, long way for you," Dinah said, thinking. "My friend Cal is from the 1970's, and Arthur and Merlin and Morgana are from even further back. Do you like it here so far, or is it too weird?"

"The people are friendly," Jack said, intentionally putting a bit of flirtation into his tone. "That always helps me feel at home, wherever I am."

"And I met Merlin. I'm afraid I was terribly rude to him when he mentioned Prince Arthur -- I thought he was having me on."

Dinah turned pink, and grinned back. "Well, when new people are charming and smart, how can we not be friendly?" she said, tilting her head flirtily. Then she winced, looking rueful. "Yeah. I met Merlin my first day here, and kind of freaked him out when I mentioned the legends. I think everyone who's heard of those stories have had similar reactions. Don't feel too bad about it, I'm sure he'll understand. How'd you figure out he wasn't joking?"

Jack smiled at the blush, then ducked his head briefly before answering. "It was his manner," he answered. "I could tell what I was saying didn't make any sense to him, and he didn't seem like a good actor."

He brought a hand to his chin. "I was always told Malory was full of lies, anyhow."

"He wrote the first legends, right?" Dinah checked, not sure of her facts. "There's been a half dozen movies and a musical play about them now. And it is weird, to have Merlin telling me the legends got it wrong. Arthur's not a stable boy, his dad's alive. You're lucky you didn't meet Arthur first, the huffiness would've been huge if you'd reacted that way to him."

"He wrote the version I read as a boy, and one of the first compilations in modern English," Jack confirmed. (He'd been raised to be pedantic about such things.) "So you think the legends are about them, and it's not just a coincidence of names? And I'm yet to meet Arthur."

"I guess they could be? There's a lot of similarities. Their facts are just off enough from the usual version for it to be possible that someone got them wrong, and made up some of the romantic parts to be more interesting." Dinah grinned. "Arthur's a good guy, but really aware he's a prince and most people here aren't. He's giving me fencing lessons, but he can take some getting used to." Massive, massive understatement. "If you use his titles, he'll be a lot more friendly."

"That's what legend is, isn't it?" Jack asked, brushing his hair down. "Someone takes facts and adds romance or violence to make them interesting."

He nodded at what she'd said about Arthur; it was something to keep in mind, at least. "You fence?" he asked, instead.

"True enough. It's odd thinking you know a legend, though. But it's odder for them, I think," she said, thinking of Merlin's vehemence that he was not That Guy. Dinah brightened up at the question about fencing. "Yup! Well, since February. It's with broadswords, not foils," she added. "In case something invades that needs to be killed a lot. Do you fence?"

"I know how to," Jack said with a nod. He'd lived with a legend for ten years; he thought it was decidedly stranger from his side, especially given Sebastien's predilection for casually dropping into conversation that this poem or that play had been based in part on him. (And, these days, Mr. Doyle's detective.) "My guardian wanted me to know ... well, anything he thought was useful. Fencing is useful."

A thin smile. "Just with foils, though. I haven't been trained to kill anything all that thoroughly."

"It is useful." Dinah turned a little red, hoping Jack didn't think she was bragging. Skill with a sword was great, the killing part... not so much. "I haven't used one here in the invasions, I'm not good enough yet. Just guns and sticks, and whatever was handy." That might have sounded worse. Wonderful.

Jack didn't think she was bragging; he also didn't think it was ladylike, but there seemed to be different rules for that here and he wasn't one to deny a woman her skill based on gender alone.

But he couldn't resist a comment. "Women fight here, then," he said. "I mean, without magic."

"Uh-hunh. Some don't, but a lot of us do-- I've been training for a year and a half now, others even longer. Ninjas, and swordswomen, and some of them know magic too." Dinah looked thoughtful, trying to remember her history. "Not so much in 1899 where you're from, yet? Mostly nurses in the army, if they even do that?"

"Not so much, no," Jack agreed, ~~handwavily~~ giving a quick explanation of what he knew. "A ninja? What, like a samurai?"

"Right, exactly. Hinata and Ino are both from a Japan where they've been trained as ninjas-- they have different specialties, but Ino goes out on assignments all the time. Temari just graduated, she was one too. Jaina and Tahiri are Jedi knights, well, knight-in-training, for Tahiri. That's in another galaxy, though." Dinah grinned. "And there's some girls who just like to fight. We all end up at Fight Club on Sundays."

"You're about the third person to mention Fight Club to me," Jack mentioned. "I may have to go some week, just to see what the fuss is."

LBJ Campfire, Monday Evening

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)