xix λ exploration

[assassino]

----- Stephanie Brown -----

She admitted to having affections for me, but acknowledged that they will not come to pass. I did not kiss her or lead her astray, but I thought you should know in case she goes to you weeping.

[He's just leaving her a message, of course. So he doesn't get his ass kicked.]


------

[Here's a fairly chipper tone:]

There are conversations about expeditions... I wonder, curiously, why there is so much waiting involved. There is no need to amass supplies nor food when the castle gifts it so readily, no need to search for patrons to fund the expedition, so why do people not simply pack up a horse and depart? Even women and children could travel easily, like this.

People from the future are terribly pampered.

[Meanwhile, you can find Ezio in the garden, picking flowers for his lady.]

Comments

[assassino]

[He shrugs, teasing the cotton apart in his fingers and trying to imagine how God could create a plant the same as a sheep.]

How much else of what I know is false, then?

[molotov]

Probably most of it. Science has come a long way in five centuries. I am willing to correct as much as I can for you, though.

[assassino]

[He nods.]

I am very grateful.

[Pause]

Is it true that there are peoples in the Far East with dog heads?

[molotov]

You mean... nyet, no, Asian people have normal heads.

[assassino]

What about having holes in their bellies?

[molotov]

Asians have exactly the same parts as all other humans. They just have slanted eyes and tend to be shorter.

[assassino]

So they do not have umbrella feet?

[He's serious but he's also trying to get under her skin with absurd questions.]

[molotov]

Umbrella feet? What in the hell does that mean?

[assassino]

They have feet that look like umbrellas, so they can walk on water.

[molotov]

That does not even make sense. And nyet, it is not true.

[assassino]

It does make sense. Like having little boats for feet, upside-down umbrellas.

[He is a child sometimes.]

[molotov]

[Molotov rolls her eye and sighs.]

Well, whatever. The point is that it is not true. They have regular feet.

[assassino]

[He laughs.]

The world is less wondrous than I thought.

[molotov]

It can still be wondrous without people looking like horrible monsters!

[assassino]

Well, are there any plants with animals attached?

[molotov]

Well, there are Venus flytraps, but those are not really animals. They are just carnivorous plants.

[assassino]

What is "carnivorous"?

[molotov]

It means "eats meat only". Humans eat meat and plants, so we are "omnivorous". Something that only eats plants, like a horse or a cow, that is "herbivorous".

Most plants create their own food, from the sunlight. But Venus flytraps have a mouth and reflexes, and they eat bugs that land on them.

[assassino]

That is strange, but not exactly the same as a whole sheep grown from the ground.

[molotov]

But nothing like that exists.

[assassino]

But the world was more interesting when we thought it existed.

[molotov]

You have no idea what wonders the world actually holds, kroshka. There is no need for silly made up stories.

[assassino]

Well, tell me a real story, then.

[molotov]

[Molotov thinks for a moment, before coming up with something.]

In the very far north, especially in the Nordic countries, there is something called the Northern Lights. The whole sky lights up blue and green and red and purple. It is completely natural, and happens every night for months.

Very beautiful, almost unbelievably so.

[assassino]

[he considers that for a moment, trying to imagine what that would look like. Beautiful, of course, but he's not sure what to make of it.]

Why does it happen?