picknicking

[dark_light]

There's something unutterably pleasant about landing in a bit of woods in the middle of Nowhere, Manitoba, removing a sandwich and an apple from her backpack and having a picnic before she's ready to move on. She could eat in midair, but it makes it too likely that she'll drop something and find it unrecoverable.

Path's on her knee, and her cloudpine is propped up against the tree next to her.

Comments

[prodigal_miser]

"It's okay," Adarin says gently.

And it is. Well, mostly, but the things that aren't have nothing to do with her, and she didn't cause any of it. He doesn't even consider it the movie's fault - he's pretty sure a world getting destroyed wouldn't be something anyone here has experienced before, and is sufficiently out there that it can just be dramatic and not invoke bad memories. For everyone but one particular visitor.

Isabella gets a somewhat comforting hand pat, then it's back to movie.

[dark_light]

End credits!

[prodigal_miser]

He has no idea if he's allowed to talk at this point! Adarin glances at Isabella, questioningly. Also, what are these? He's pretty sure it just ended, but he could be wrong?

[dark_light]

"You can talk now. This is the end where they show you a big list of everybody who helped make the movie," Isabella says. "Sometimes people leave; sometimes movies have a bonus scene after the credits to encourage people not to do that."

[prodigal_miser]

"Oh. Alright. Either is fine by me."

Tentative smile. "I'm doing better, thank you for the mid-movie support."

[dark_light]

"It was no trouble. Let's you and all your candy get out of here."

[prodigal_miser]

Ah yes, the candy. That will get attention later, don't worry. Enjoy your remaining time in this world, candy, because it certainly won't be forever.

He snickers a little, and nods. Candy and Vern are collected, along with his drink. It takes a bit of juggling, but Vern helps by transferring to his shoulder.

[dark_light]

"So what billion questions about Star Trek and the history of cinema do you want me to answer now, huh?"

[prodigal_miser]

"Hm. You know, I lost track. Perhaps I should have written them down, after all. I'll think of more, I'm sure," he muses. "Mostly I was wondering why Kirk was the lead character. He was not very good at long-term planning and only made it out through luck, or in the end, didn't. Also, black holes don't do that. They'd all just be dead."

[dark_light]

"Well, like I said, it's a reboot - the old Spock guy? He played Spock in a television show a long time ago. There was also a Kirk but he didn't reappear in this movie. So Kirk is the main character because Kirk is the main character - I haven't seen the TV show so I don't know that much about whether he was any better then, though. And sci-fi takes a lot of liberties with how things like black holes really work."

[prodigal_miser]

"Ah, I see. Why do they feel the need to take liberties with how black holes work? This is a theoretical fantasy 'what if' - they could have it be something else that isn't going to very definitively kill you. They eat stars, a ship is nothing in comparison."

He's mostly just nitpicking. Overall, he liked it, aside from the obvious part where he didn't.

[dark_light]

"Soft sci-fi is basically fantasy that's themed around things people think are 'sciencey'. Black holes are sciencey, so that's what they named this thing."

[prodigal_miser]

"Uh... Huh. 'Sciency.' That doesn't even seem particularly sciency, we knew about astronomy ages ago, I'm pretty sure that even someone who hasn't had a proper education knows that black holes are non-survivable if you get caught in them."

[dark_light]

"Astronomy is a science, and you can avoid learning about it if you don't go reading astronomy books or paying close attention to the sky - this adds up to 'astronomy things are sciencey'. The people who write this stuff are writers, not scientists, and they vary pretty widely in how much they care about verisimilitude."

[prodigal_miser]

"Witches don't do any scrying on stars and such, do they? Because we don't think of astronomy as a science, it's... a hobby? Cataloging? A fascinating and beautiful thing to occasionally look at and go, 'Oooo, a star getting eaten by a black hole, terrifying and gorgeous.' You can get a job in it, I guess, but it's like map making except less applicable to things."

[dark_light]

"No - we don't have any divinations with that kind of range. Astronomers use telescopes."

[prodigal_miser]

"That sounds incredibly inefficient. No wonder they think black holes are safe," he says. "Maybe some time in the future I should track down the writers and show them how black holes eat stars. Then I'll ask if they think they're survivable. Which they're not."

[dark_light]

"I really don't think that's a priority. They probably already get appalled messages from astronomers and the vaguely scientifically literate who know this fact."

[prodigal_miser]

He smiles, a bit. He wasn't actually planning to do that, but saying so made him feel better. "Me doing it would be more fun, though."

[dark_light]

"Well, far be it from me to stop you if it ever floats to the top of your priorities list."

[prodigal_miser]

"Aw, thanks. Above that on the list is showing you some scryings of things in space, though. You wouldn't actually be able to see anything happen quickly, but some of it's very pretty."

[dark_light]

"Remind me when we are showing you things in the library to get you some pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope. Astronomers can handle pretty despite their handicaps. In fact, even on my slow phone connection..."

Isabella looks up a picture of the earth from space, waits for it to load, and shows it to him.

[prodigal_miser]

He is shown! He looks amused. "Pretty. Alright, fine, pocket library wins this round. This round."

[dark_light]

"The sky is actually full of lots of artificial satellites doing all kinds of things."

[prodigal_miser]

"Shhhh, Isabella, let me think I can win. Otherwise I'll pout."