Third floor common room [Wednesday afternoon]

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

The modern world continued to baffle Celia.

She had a day free from classes, and thought to spend it leisurely. She'd tied her hair back with a ribbon rather than piled it atop her head formally, she'd dressed in a simple frock sans bustle, and she had even padded down to the common room in stocking feet. For Celia, this was the equivalent of wearing one's pajamas all day.

And when she arrived, she had found herself a bowl to pour cereal into, and even turned on the television correctly. (All of which she had done magically, out of pure laziness.) But she hadn't, somehow, been prepared for one of the great staples of weekday laziness: daytime television.

Just when she thought she understood what might appear on the screen at any time -- she'd seen a program featuring the antics of four elderly women the other day that she'd greatly enjoyed, and hoped to come across again -- she was confronted with something like this.

"I cheated on my cousin with a stripper?" she read aloud, utterly confused.

She wanted to turn it off as soon as the content became clear -- and very loud and somewhat violent. But Celia found herself transfixed. She knew how to change the channels now, yes, but...how could she? She had never seen such a spectacle before.

Welcome to daytime talkshows, Celia. Will modern wonders never cease?

[open CR! link goes to the Jerry Springer website, which I probably shouldn't have visited at work. Oops.]

Comments

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

"Being horrified by this world," Celia said, shaking her head even as she turned to smile at her roommate. "I think I've stumbled upon the lowest form of modern entertainment."

And yet she couldn't look away.

[not_a_moonie]

"That's the scuzziest thing I've seen on Earth," Alana concurred, after a moment of watching in horrified silence. "Not as bad as Sextillion soap operas back home, but still. That's up there."

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

"What's a Sextillion?" Celia asked, already wincing. "We don't have anything like this at home, I don't think."

At least, not that she'd seen. Music halls could be fairly bawdy places, but not this bad.

[not_a_moonie]

"It's a planet where guys go to do sex stuff," Alana said, cheeks going slightly pink. "Kind of a gross place, so their TV shows are gross to match it. Honestly, I think you're kind of the lucky one."

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

"Like a -- brothel?" Celia was horrified. "Um. Oh, no, we have that sort of thing at home. Not that I'm supposed to know they exist. My father would have a fit if he heard me refer to such things. Young ladies like myself aren't intended to have any knowledge of anything like that, of course." She rolled her eyes. "I think it's a common denominator across all cultures, honestly. Some are just more fussy about hiding it."

[not_a_moonie]

"Like a whole planet of brothels," Alana nodded. "And it probably wouldn't be my dad's favorite thing to hear me talking about, either. But I figure he doesn't get a vote when he's never around."

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

"No?" Celia offered a sympathetic smile. "I should adopt that policy when it comes to my own father. He doesn't get to decide things for me unless he puts in the time."

It was a nice idea, but Celia suspected it would end in something painful and a decree that she needed to spend more time practicing and less time thinking up stupid ideas.

"It doesn't matter here, at least," she added. "I've never been allowed to do essentially whatever I like, before."

[not_a_moonie]

"So you might really go crazy here," Alana suggested. "But yeah, that's pretty much what I figure. If he wants some perfect doll of a daughter, he can start by having a conversation with me once in a while."

Like that would happen.

She smiled wryly. "Sorry. Dads are hard."

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

"Don't worry, I know better than most," Celia sighed, lazily flicking a fingertip at her empty cereal bowl to float it back to the kitchen. "Raised by a single father who preferred to use me as an adorable accessory until I got too old to play with dolls. Dads are hard, indeed. Is yours busy with anything terribly important, at least?"

[not_a_moonie]

"He thinks so," Alana sighed, and might have said more if she hadn't noticed the floating crockery. "Um. You just floated your bowl, right? I'm not randomly seeing things?"

She was surprised and curious, but not shocked. She'd seen magic before.

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

Celia smiled, coloring slightly. "Your vision is fine. I, um, do magic. Sorry I didn't mention it before. I'm only just becoming...open with it. I wasn't sure whether to trust people here. No offense."

[not_a_moonie]

"None taken," Alana said, waving it off. "I'm jealous, is all. I get that some people have good reasons to keep it quiet."

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

"It's just not something that's known, where I'm from. Most people assume magic is just pretend," Celia said, twirling her finger and drawing a little purple tendril of mist in the air. "I should've mentioned it when you showed me your wings, honestly. I don't think I've met a single person here who doesn't have some sort of capability or differentiation."

[not_a_moonie]

"At home, there are some species that can do magic and some that can't," Alana explained, watching the mist sparkle. "People from Landfall mainly can't. But -- yeah,you're right. If there are any totally boring people here they keep it quiet."

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

"People can do magic where you're from?" Celia repeated, raising her eyebrows. "And they call it that? I haven't met anyone else who does -- plenty of people who can do what I can, but they credit science, or their genes."

[not_a_moonie]

"Not a lot of people," Alana clarified. "And it's less about floating things and more about spells, I think. But yeah, it happens and we call it that."