TFLN #1

[thetonmods]

TEXTS FROM LAST GALA

YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO..

 

This is for fun! Anyone can join; you don't have to be a member of our game to play on this meme. For those who are playing in The Ton, these threads are not considered canon and should not be put towards AC or rewards.

More importantly, be sure to mind your manners.

Comments

[astraythought]

The city, a couple hundred years ago. But it was made an independent city-state in 1875.

Brooklyn, though? I worked as a housemaid in upstate New York, when I first left home. We're practically neighbors.

[pursuitofcappiness]

Guess we must've diverged before that.

And hey, we might be a couple hundred years apart, but I'll take neighbors.

Are you free sometime for that dance lesson? I don't want to make too big a fool of myself.

[astraythought]

Tonight, perhaps? I can make dinner beforehand, if you'd like.

[She refuses to let her maid cook all her meals on general principle; as she said, she'd worked as a live-in housemaid, she knew how to handle a kitchen.]

[pursuitofcappiness]

Sure. I wouldn't want to put you out though, about dinner.

[ And personally, he'd grown up working class so the thought of having help is still weird to him. ]

[astraythought]

The cost of ingredients will be offset by the Thumos gained in dancing, and I was planning on cooking for myself anyway.

It's really no trouble.

[pursuitofcappiness]

Well, okay, when you put it like that. I accept.

[astraythought]

I'll expect you between 6 and 7 tonight. Wear dress shoes.

[pursuitofcappiness]

I will, but trust me, you're gonna want me in socks.

[astraythought]

Are you really going to be on my toes that much?

[pursuitofcappiness]

I last attempted to dance in 1945.

[astraythought]

And it was probably a style of dance not invented by my time. Good point, stocking feet to start.

I'll see you soon. :)

[Ducky is not normally an emoji person--that was a complete whim, and she second-guesses it the moment she sends the message, but trying to revoke the smiley would only draw more attention to it.

More important to make a good impression with dinner, than to worry about superfluous tone indicators.]

[pursuitofcappiness]

See you soon :)

[ Steve is nothing if not polite, and if she likes emojis, he'll use them too.

He shows up fifteen minutes early, with a hostess gift of flowers, and in dress shoes but with a shoehorn in his back pocket because he was very serious about not wanting to step on her feet. ]

[astraythought]

Do come in, Mister Rogers.

[Dinner can be smelled the moment she opens the door to greet him and usher him inside. It's not a feast, but she is cooking to impress--roast chicken and a french onion tarte tatin are sitting on the dining room table already, alongside a garden salad and honeyed carrots.

(The leftovers of the chicken and the onion and carrot ends will be used for chicken stock tomorrow. Ducky is nothing if not resourceful.)]

I'll find a vase for those. They're lovely, and very thoughtful.

[pursuitofcappiness]

[ He lets himself in, and he's not really sure if he should bow, but he gives a curt one just because he sees some of the people here doing it. ]

Aster, for patience. I can't take credit for that, my butler had to tell me.

And thanks for having me. Whatever you've made smells delicious.

[astraythought]

You're saving me from an excess of leftovers. Come, have a seat.

[She locates a vase, filling it with water; she'll trim the stems on the flowers later. Right now, it's just about getting them on the table and taking a seat.]

Do you prefer light meat or dark, for your chicken?

[pursuitofcappiness]

Ducky, I'll take any way as long as I'm not cooking it.

[ He's easy like that, and he really doesn't have a preference - his tastebuds aren't exactly refined, and he really just appreciates a good home-cooked meal. One that's offered freely, and not made by magic butlers that are uncanny. ]

[astraythought]

I'll remember that, and use you when I'm experimenting with recipes.

[She fixes him a plate with a little bit of everything, and then serves herself.]

Back home, Sir Mimley rarely entertained, so I'd only be cooking for him and myself most nights. It meant I had a lot of leeway to play around with techniques and ingredients.

[pursuitofcappiness]

Really? You've got yourself a deal.

[ For how unrefined his palate is, it sure is a wide one. ]

Tell me more about Sir Mimley. Is that who you worked for in New York?

[astraythought]

No, Sir Mimley Bastrop is my current employer, in Gallery. He was knighted for his contributions to the sciences; he was part of a team that invented the first thinking machine.

[Before 1914. Her universe has a computer that advanced (actually an AI) before 1914.]

He was the engineer, working alongside a brilliant theoretician and a mathematician of note. But he's mostly retired now, living off his family's fortune.

[pursuitofcappiness]

Oh, I see. Thinking machines... I think from where I'm from, we'd call that a computer.

But now you've got me interested in knowing where our worlds diverged, because this roast is what I'd expect out of dinner at home, just way better.

And New York's still New York. For us it used to be New Amsterdam, until it was sold.

[ He's not expecting her to know off the top of her head if that happened on her world too, but he's just fascinated with what things happened the same way. ]

[astraythought]

A roast chicken is eternal. They had similar recipes in Greece and Rome, I'm sure. The real trick on the table is that tarte tatin. French technique, always a little risky.

[But she glows under such warm praise.]

It's interesting to me, when cities change names. In the Ottoman Empire, in my time, there's some debate about Constantinople, and whether it should be called by a name derived from medieval Greek instead, Istimbol.

[pursuitofcappiness]

Our Earth did change it. Istanbul. 1930. Momma called it Constantinople from time to time still.

A lot of cities and countries have been renamed in the last hundred years.

[ But now he's curious: ]

What about San Marino and Andorra? Are those separate countries?

[astraythought]

San Marino is part of Italy. Corsica only became part of France recently; it was Italian and many of the natives still consider themselves Italian, including my family. Armoria's been clamoring about going to war with France, as the French army hasn't fully recovered from the Platinum Wars. The Isle of Pilaf is currently a protectorate of Gallery, since the death of its royal family in 1895, though rumors exist that the princess, Nina Musadora, is still out in the world somewhere.

[It's a strange world history, just a little to the left.]

[pursuitofcappiness]

[ continuation ]