Moonstone: Scene 10
Db Major Con Rabbia
Finding information on the Flower laws for the Air nation wasn't hard. The mesh-x access had the information in triplicate. Finding the information for the extinct Energy race however, proved to be more difficult than I first thought. The mesh-x controller for the Water nation had tantalyzing blurbs, but if I wanted more information, I would have to scan-in. What if my eyes had changed after I died? How much had the living metal changed? What if my brain-print was different? What was I so worried about? If I didn't register as an academy affiliate, it just wouldn't let me have access, right? No one would be able to track the unauthorized attempt back to me, would they? That's what I was anxious about - that someone would find out that I was seeking knowledge that Flowers aren't allowed to have. That would make me a weed.
Hellfire. I needed to stop being so anxiety-ridden.
I turned on the ear pad interface, and the head set grew out of the side of the view port. I had some difficulty placing the pads over my ears. My ears were thinner, taller, and had a funny point. I hadn't noticed the difference before, but it made the ear pad difficult to adjust exactly to my ear shape. Finally I adjusted the set to my ears and I felt the familiar warm tingle of the interface connection.
I initiated the scan-in for the Water mesh-x controller. It's the oddest feeling, for a brief moment you lose your balance, and your inner ear feels warm, then there is the flash straight into your eyes. I hadn't scanned-in in what felt like ages. I sat there anxiously waiting for the mesh-x controller to either verify or deny my access. Triandis Suiryoku? It verified me as Triandis Suiryoku? What the hellfire?! I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. The change in light happened over my head, and the artificial illumination rose to life. My brothers would be home from academy soon. I quickly created myself a study account and pulled down archived Energy texts - every one that I could find. Some of the texts were in a writing I hadn't seen before, but I gleaned what I could from the texts I could read. One text caused me to stop and re-read the blurbs. I re-read it again. I re-read it one more time to make sure. It was as clear as water. Drendyn and I had inherited all of the land and properties belonging to the entire Energy nation, as it's sole survivors. They had written a catastrophe clause? What kind of individuals wrote a catastrophe clause for an entire nation? Something clicked in my head. I had half of an entire nation, but under Air law, my inheritance would be taken by my purchaser. PANIC.
Hellfire! I heard voices outside the doors. I shut everything down and ripped the scanset off my head. Think, think. Oh! Darkyn's mess! I'm cleaning up Darkyn's mess! RIGHT!
I ran over to Darkyn's station and crashed into his papers as the doors opened.
Dristenven. Hellfire. Ok, I'm just cleaning Darkyn's mess. That's all. Itxata? Itxata was with Dristenven?
"Lyte! There you are!" He stopped. "You do not need to clean up after Darkyn, we do have a fully functional cleaning system."
I breathed.
"Anyway, you have a tea with a prospective purchaser. I've asked Itxata to help you."
He said it in a way that directly said to me: "I've asked Itxata to give you a quick lesson so you don't screw it all up." I got the point.
"She has all of the details. Please join us in the white room when you are ready."
Uh huh. He just told me to get all my crap together and get to the white room as fast as I possibly could and don't complain. I must be getting better at translating Darx's polite speech.
"Of course." I nodded. Better get moving. Of course, I didn't have to worry about that with Itxata. She had pushed me in a near-run to the wash room in the sun wing before I could blink.
"Would you please not shove me around? I'm sore!"
"Then learn to jump when your family asks you to do something! You're so slow!"
Couldn't go a day without being insulted by Itxata - I wouldn't know what to do with myself!
"You've got to be kidding me! There's no way I'm wearing that foofoo fluffy crap!"
"It's traditional tea clothing! You have to wear it!"
"No. I'm not wearing it! I refuse to look like a flower puked all over me!"
Instead of just being one GIANT flower, this dress looked like hundreds of flower heads had been set side by side and connected together.
"You have to wear it!"
"You already said that and I said no! I swear if you try to make me wear it I will make myself ill and vomit all over it!" No way. No how. Not happening.
She gave me the most exasperated look I'd ever seen and went back through the DPU catalog projected in front of us. Hmmm. She gave up rather easily.
"All right, tell me what's going on."
"What do you mean?"
"Uh huh. You never let me get away with anything. What's different?"
She gave me a harsh look.
"Dristenven said to make you as happy as reasonable, because you would be very unhappy very soon."
Unhappy very soon?
"What about this one?"
At least it didn't look like I puked flowers.
"It's good enough. So what is this one normally for?"
"It's a traditional Water tea uniform. It's not standard Air, but it is acceptable."
"They have different uniforms?"
She gave me another harsh look. I thought she was going to swat me. She accepted the catalog choice and made a few adjustments to the design. The DPU starting happily printing the new clothing.
"Ok, now, here are the basic rules of a tea. YOU DO NOT TALK! If you are DIRECTLY asked a question you may talk. OTHERWISE YOU DO NOT TALK! YOU ONLY LOOK UP FROM THE TABLE IF YOU ARE ASKED TO DO SO! YOU DO NOT MAKE ANY NOISE!"
"STOP SHOUTING AT ME!"
"This is excrutiatingly important! I'm trying to stress to you how important a tea is.
"You don't need to shout."
"How's this then - if you disobey ANY of the rules, you will be pronounced a weed, on the spot."
"And then what?"
"And then you will be executed."
"Seems a little harsh just for a tea."
"A tea is just a nice way of saying "you're being talked about and assessed as an object of value" while you are sitting there."
My jaw dropped.
"Yes, that's right. You will be only an object whose value has yet to be determined by the purchaser."
Anger.
"No no no. You can't be angry. You can't be ANYTHING other than completely happy."
Rage.
"Do you want something to calm you down?"
"I think I'm going to need it."
"We all do on our first tea."
I hadn't realized how short Itxata was. As she went searching around the cabinets of the wash area I realized I was much taller than she. I guess her aggressive personality made her seem taller.
"Itxata what race are you?"
She was kneeling and had her head in one of the cabinets, looking for something.
"What?!" She smacked her head on the top of the cabinet as she exited with bottles in her hands.
"What race are you? I can't figure you out. You have blue hair, like icy sea blue, but you have icy green skin with one red eye and one green eye, and you're short."
"Thank you for that observation of my faults."
"No, I didn't mean it that way! I mean, I just can't figure out where you're from."
She laughed. Oh good, I hadn't offended her.
"My father was a Fire and my mother was a Water." She smiled.
"You're a mixed breed? I didn't know that was even possible!"
"Oh, it's possible, it's just not acceptable."
"So what happened? I mean, if I can ask you?"
The DPU chirped.
"Tell you what. I'll tell you if you drink this and put on your clothes, and then listen to everything I say about your tea today."
She handed me a funny purple bottle.
"Nirvaise with a little kick of Lindir. The Nirvaise hides the taste of the Lindir."
Lindir? As in the drug that some of my ex-academy mates used to take for fun? The drug that made them stupid?
Itxata looked at me as I was holding the bottle, panicking.
"No, not enough to wipe you out like many of the males use. Just enough to take the edge off your emotions. You'll be able to just sit there and "take it" ... drink up."
Maybe I would need two of these.
"Maybe you'll need two." She fixed another one.
"Still not enough to waste you, but enough now that you should be able to bottle up any rage and hide it nicely under a pretty smile."
Oh yeah. I see what she meant. I felt happy but not wasted. Ok, maybe a little wasted. Just a teeny tiny bit wasted.
So putting on Flower clothing after two hits of Nirvaise and Lindir is not the easiest thing in the world.
"My mother was still attending Ikebana when the Air crafts attacked Dryft. Her parents died in the fall. My father was a senator that helped your father pass the necessary laws to condone Kallus' actions. My father visited the Garden after the war, and once he found out that my mother would no longer be able to attend Ikebana, he offered to purchase my mother before she was hybridized. He paid for the rest of her Gardening and then, when she moved out of the Garden, she had me."
I nodded very politely.
"Oh yeah, you'll be fine during your tea."
I nodded again. She was right, I didn't feel any anger. Why had Darx instructed her to placate me?
"Ok, now listen very carefully. You musn't make any noise unless you are asked to do so. You pour the tea, for the purchaser first, for your agent second, and for yourself third. Do not slurp your tea. Keep your eyes down unless you are asked to look up. They will tell you how long to keep your head up. Do not speak unless they ask you a direct question. If they ask you to stand and turn around, do so. Your agent will not let the purchaser ask you to do anything disrespectful. Remember to smile, the entire time. Do you understand?"
"Just pretend I'm inanimate."
"Yes. But Smile."
"A smiling inanimate object."
"Yes."
"Do I drink my tea first?"
"Yes. They will not drink until you do first. Do not slurp. Do not make even the tiniest little noise. The tea will be hot, but not hot enough to burn you. Do not blow on it. Simply take a sip from your cup, graphic side pointing toward your purchaser."
"I think I have it."
"If you don't, you're dead."
"Right." Smile. Don't make a single noise. Stare at the table. I think I can do this.
"Remember, smile. Smile nicely. No matter what happens, imagine yourself doing something you love doing."
Itxata escorted me down to the white room. Dristenven was waiting outside the doors.
"Is she happy?"
"Yeah, she's happy." Itxata looked at me. I smiled. Of course I'm happy! How else could I feel?
"If she starts to slip, put this in her tea." Itxata handed Dristenven a pill. They were talking about me as if I wasn't even there! Oh right, that's what they're supposed to do, and I'm supposed to smile. Right. Got it. I smiled.
"Remember Lyte, smile nicely. Don't make a single noise. Stare at the table - count the flower petals. Imagine yourself doing something happy." Itxata hugged me. She hugged me? She had never hugged me before. Had she? I couldn't remember her hugging me. But I'm supposed to smile, right. I smiled.
Dristenven opened the doors.
Finding information on the Flower laws for the Air nation wasn't hard. The mesh-x access had the information in triplicate. Finding the information for the extinct Energy race however, proved to be more difficult than I first thought. The mesh-x controller for the Water nation had tantalyzing blurbs, but if I wanted more information, I would have to scan-in. What if my eyes had changed after I died? How much had the living metal changed? What if my brain-print was different? What was I so worried about? If I didn't register as an academy affiliate, it just wouldn't let me have access, right? No one would be able to track the unauthorized attempt back to me, would they? That's what I was anxious about - that someone would find out that I was seeking knowledge that Flowers aren't allowed to have. That would make me a weed.
Hellfire. I needed to stop being so anxiety-ridden.
I turned on the ear pad interface, and the head set grew out of the side of the view port. I had some difficulty placing the pads over my ears. My ears were thinner, taller, and had a funny point. I hadn't noticed the difference before, but it made the ear pad difficult to adjust exactly to my ear shape. Finally I adjusted the set to my ears and I felt the familiar warm tingle of the interface connection.
I initiated the scan-in for the Water mesh-x controller. It's the oddest feeling, for a brief moment you lose your balance, and your inner ear feels warm, then there is the flash straight into your eyes. I hadn't scanned-in in what felt like ages. I sat there anxiously waiting for the mesh-x controller to either verify or deny my access. Triandis Suiryoku? It verified me as Triandis Suiryoku? What the hellfire?! I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. The change in light happened over my head, and the artificial illumination rose to life. My brothers would be home from academy soon. I quickly created myself a study account and pulled down archived Energy texts - every one that I could find. Some of the texts were in a writing I hadn't seen before, but I gleaned what I could from the texts I could read. One text caused me to stop and re-read the blurbs. I re-read it again. I re-read it one more time to make sure. It was as clear as water. Drendyn and I had inherited all of the land and properties belonging to the entire Energy nation, as it's sole survivors. They had written a catastrophe clause? What kind of individuals wrote a catastrophe clause for an entire nation? Something clicked in my head. I had half of an entire nation, but under Air law, my inheritance would be taken by my purchaser. PANIC.
Hellfire! I heard voices outside the doors. I shut everything down and ripped the scanset off my head. Think, think. Oh! Darkyn's mess! I'm cleaning up Darkyn's mess! RIGHT!
I ran over to Darkyn's station and crashed into his papers as the doors opened.
Dristenven. Hellfire. Ok, I'm just cleaning Darkyn's mess. That's all. Itxata? Itxata was with Dristenven?
"Lyte! There you are!" He stopped. "You do not need to clean up after Darkyn, we do have a fully functional cleaning system."
I breathed.
"Anyway, you have a tea with a prospective purchaser. I've asked Itxata to help you."
He said it in a way that directly said to me: "I've asked Itxata to give you a quick lesson so you don't screw it all up." I got the point.
"She has all of the details. Please join us in the white room when you are ready."
Uh huh. He just told me to get all my crap together and get to the white room as fast as I possibly could and don't complain. I must be getting better at translating Darx's polite speech.
"Of course." I nodded. Better get moving. Of course, I didn't have to worry about that with Itxata. She had pushed me in a near-run to the wash room in the sun wing before I could blink.
"Would you please not shove me around? I'm sore!"
"Then learn to jump when your family asks you to do something! You're so slow!"
Couldn't go a day without being insulted by Itxata - I wouldn't know what to do with myself!
"You've got to be kidding me! There's no way I'm wearing that foofoo fluffy crap!"
"It's traditional tea clothing! You have to wear it!"
"No. I'm not wearing it! I refuse to look like a flower puked all over me!"
Instead of just being one GIANT flower, this dress looked like hundreds of flower heads had been set side by side and connected together.
"You have to wear it!"
"You already said that and I said no! I swear if you try to make me wear it I will make myself ill and vomit all over it!" No way. No how. Not happening.
She gave me the most exasperated look I'd ever seen and went back through the DPU catalog projected in front of us. Hmmm. She gave up rather easily.
"All right, tell me what's going on."
"What do you mean?"
"Uh huh. You never let me get away with anything. What's different?"
She gave me a harsh look.
"Dristenven said to make you as happy as reasonable, because you would be very unhappy very soon."
Unhappy very soon?
"What about this one?"
At least it didn't look like I puked flowers.
"It's good enough. So what is this one normally for?"
"It's a traditional Water tea uniform. It's not standard Air, but it is acceptable."
"They have different uniforms?"
She gave me another harsh look. I thought she was going to swat me. She accepted the catalog choice and made a few adjustments to the design. The DPU starting happily printing the new clothing.
"Ok, now, here are the basic rules of a tea. YOU DO NOT TALK! If you are DIRECTLY asked a question you may talk. OTHERWISE YOU DO NOT TALK! YOU ONLY LOOK UP FROM THE TABLE IF YOU ARE ASKED TO DO SO! YOU DO NOT MAKE ANY NOISE!"
"STOP SHOUTING AT ME!"
"This is excrutiatingly important! I'm trying to stress to you how important a tea is.
"You don't need to shout."
"How's this then - if you disobey ANY of the rules, you will be pronounced a weed, on the spot."
"And then what?"
"And then you will be executed."
"Seems a little harsh just for a tea."
"A tea is just a nice way of saying "you're being talked about and assessed as an object of value" while you are sitting there."
My jaw dropped.
"Yes, that's right. You will be only an object whose value has yet to be determined by the purchaser."
Anger.
"No no no. You can't be angry. You can't be ANYTHING other than completely happy."
Rage.
"Do you want something to calm you down?"
"I think I'm going to need it."
"We all do on our first tea."
I hadn't realized how short Itxata was. As she went searching around the cabinets of the wash area I realized I was much taller than she. I guess her aggressive personality made her seem taller.
"Itxata what race are you?"
She was kneeling and had her head in one of the cabinets, looking for something.
"What?!" She smacked her head on the top of the cabinet as she exited with bottles in her hands.
"What race are you? I can't figure you out. You have blue hair, like icy sea blue, but you have icy green skin with one red eye and one green eye, and you're short."
"Thank you for that observation of my faults."
"No, I didn't mean it that way! I mean, I just can't figure out where you're from."
She laughed. Oh good, I hadn't offended her.
"My father was a Fire and my mother was a Water." She smiled.
"You're a mixed breed? I didn't know that was even possible!"
"Oh, it's possible, it's just not acceptable."
"So what happened? I mean, if I can ask you?"
The DPU chirped.
"Tell you what. I'll tell you if you drink this and put on your clothes, and then listen to everything I say about your tea today."
She handed me a funny purple bottle.
"Nirvaise with a little kick of Lindir. The Nirvaise hides the taste of the Lindir."
Lindir? As in the drug that some of my ex-academy mates used to take for fun? The drug that made them stupid?
Itxata looked at me as I was holding the bottle, panicking.
"No, not enough to wipe you out like many of the males use. Just enough to take the edge off your emotions. You'll be able to just sit there and "take it" ... drink up."
Maybe I would need two of these.
"Maybe you'll need two." She fixed another one.
"Still not enough to waste you, but enough now that you should be able to bottle up any rage and hide it nicely under a pretty smile."
Oh yeah. I see what she meant. I felt happy but not wasted. Ok, maybe a little wasted. Just a teeny tiny bit wasted.
So putting on Flower clothing after two hits of Nirvaise and Lindir is not the easiest thing in the world.
"My mother was still attending Ikebana when the Air crafts attacked Dryft. Her parents died in the fall. My father was a senator that helped your father pass the necessary laws to condone Kallus' actions. My father visited the Garden after the war, and once he found out that my mother would no longer be able to attend Ikebana, he offered to purchase my mother before she was hybridized. He paid for the rest of her Gardening and then, when she moved out of the Garden, she had me."
I nodded very politely.
"Oh yeah, you'll be fine during your tea."
I nodded again. She was right, I didn't feel any anger. Why had Darx instructed her to placate me?
"Ok, now listen very carefully. You musn't make any noise unless you are asked to do so. You pour the tea, for the purchaser first, for your agent second, and for yourself third. Do not slurp your tea. Keep your eyes down unless you are asked to look up. They will tell you how long to keep your head up. Do not speak unless they ask you a direct question. If they ask you to stand and turn around, do so. Your agent will not let the purchaser ask you to do anything disrespectful. Remember to smile, the entire time. Do you understand?"
"Just pretend I'm inanimate."
"Yes. But Smile."
"A smiling inanimate object."
"Yes."
"Do I drink my tea first?"
"Yes. They will not drink until you do first. Do not slurp. Do not make even the tiniest little noise. The tea will be hot, but not hot enough to burn you. Do not blow on it. Simply take a sip from your cup, graphic side pointing toward your purchaser."
"I think I have it."
"If you don't, you're dead."
"Right." Smile. Don't make a single noise. Stare at the table. I think I can do this.
"Remember, smile. Smile nicely. No matter what happens, imagine yourself doing something you love doing."
Itxata escorted me down to the white room. Dristenven was waiting outside the doors.
"Is she happy?"
"Yeah, she's happy." Itxata looked at me. I smiled. Of course I'm happy! How else could I feel?
"If she starts to slip, put this in her tea." Itxata handed Dristenven a pill. They were talking about me as if I wasn't even there! Oh right, that's what they're supposed to do, and I'm supposed to smile. Right. Got it. I smiled.
"Remember Lyte, smile nicely. Don't make a single noise. Stare at the table - count the flower petals. Imagine yourself doing something happy." Itxata hugged me. She hugged me? She had never hugged me before. Had she? I couldn't remember her hugging me. But I'm supposed to smile, right. I smiled.
Dristenven opened the doors.
posted by Peach @ 8:24 AM
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