Log Info
Title: Of Cyborgs and Pharoahs
Emitter: {$emitter}
Characters: Amy, Eshe
NPCs: {$npcs}
Place: Amy's Room
Time: Evening
Summary: Amy begins her efforts to convert Eshe to a sci-fi fan.
_( Amy's Room(#280R) )
Amy's room is, at present, something of a work in progress. Since she's just moved in a few days ago, she obviously hasn't had time to decorate. In fact, the girl has yet to completely unpack! Her battered-looking suitcase is propped on the top of one of her book cases, bits of clothing sticking out from it at crazy angles. Her grey-green backpack open and spilling school books towards the floor next to it.
The overall effect is one of a fairly small, but decently appointed hotel room with only a few bits and bobs of it's residents personal things to indicate it's occupation. A blue scrunchie tossed onto the desk. The black trash bag doubling for a dirty clothes hamper in her closet. A modestly cut, but nicely made 'Sunday Dress' still sealed in the dressmaker's translucent plastic zipper bag hanging above.
Amy's beloved, glossy, black ESP bass sits on a simple metal and plastic stand with it's long cord plugged into the input jack of the snazzy new silver-gray Mac Power Book sitting on the corner desk next to her I-Pod. A pair of over-the ear Sony headphones with a long extension cord are parked on the back of the office chair. A dozen or so DVDs of sci-fi and fantasy films and TV shows have taken up residence in the bookcase furthest from the door.
As for the rest of the room, it' your standard Steranko Institute Dormitory. The walls are a freshly painted Navajo white, the carpet a pleasant hunter green. The bed's a single, white sheets, white pillowcase, blue comforter, looking casually made by its' occupant. Work spaces and bookcases made of simple, knock-together particle board and wood-grain veneer. Faux wicker trash basket. Institutional decor, essentially, but comfortable enough for one young girl.
___
"Well, it's not as spiffy as your room is, well, not yet. Been too busy to decorate." Amy says, ushering Eshe into her quarters. "But, it's home." she smiles, looking around at her room as if she's still just a little bit stunned at not having a roomie. "Okay, I got popcorn." she says, motioning to the three bags of microwave corn still in their wrappers. "Some candy." she adds, pointing to the two boxes of Snow Caps next to the popcorn. "And, the piece de resistance, Welsh's Grape soda." she says, indicating the two liter bottle currently chilling down in a bucket full of ice. "I wouldn't put the ice in your glass." she adds, blushing a little. "Shagged the bucket from the cleaning supply closet." she winces. "Was all I could find. I'm really glad you could make it, Eshe. Been ages since I had someone over for a movie." she grins. "You'll love this one…it's got a few good scares, action galore, and a great story."
Eshe looks around at the room of modern girl, her own is so bare by comparison. "Thank you. I've seen a few movies on the television in the lobby of my dorm but I usually end up watching the History Channel in the student center. It took me a while to realize that not everything on the television box was real." She walks over and grabs a kernel of popcorn, popping it into her mouth and chewing. She's dressed very casually, she even left her denim jacket back in her room, leaving her in her tight black tank top and even tighter hip-hugging, low-rider jeans and Converse All-Stars sneakers. "Which fiction are we watching tonight? I have to admit there's not much that actually scares me anymore. When you've seen what I have, fiction tends to pale when compared to reality but I do love action and stories. I just saw the best movie the other day! It had a young woman from some place called Kansas and she got caught in a weather disturbance called a Twister which apparently carried her house to another place along with her dog and they landed on someone and killed her, which I thought was very funny. I was just confused about why the beginning had no color and the rest did."
"Heh, Wizard of Oz, I've seen that one. Not really my thing." Amy admits with a chuckle. "I can't tell if it was the whole 'gingham dress' thing or those flying monkeys that turned me off the most." she snerks. "But it was, like, one of the first color movies, I think. Or was that Gone With The Wind?" she asks rhetorically. "Anyway, doesn't matter. Glad you liked the movie, though." she adds, gesturing to the couch. "So, you want some soda? Welch's Grape…the gold standard by which all other grape sodas are judged." she offers temptingly. "I'm kind of low on seating, for which I apologize." she adds. "We can either sit on the bed or the floor. And, the only thing I've got to play movies on is my laptop, but it's got a great screen on it, very high rez. Good speakers, too."
"Oh, don't worry about seating, I can just sit anywhere," Eshe grins and just kind of sits down in mid-air. "Something I've recently learned in one of my classes on 'creative applications of common powers'. As the instructor said "Flight is more versatile than merely a way to go from point A to point B in a straight line quickly." Then he showed me how to just stay in one place. It's quite comfortable, like sitting on a very soft cushion." She draws her legs up beneath her and holds out a hand, palm up. "I would love some of your Grape Soda. Anything that is the standard by which all else is judged must be fantastic. Oh and some of that candy as well. Can I ask you a very silly question?"
"Ha!" Amy laughs as Eshe starts to levitate. "That is _very_ cool." she grins, moving to pour Eshe a glass of fizzy grape soda and snag a box of Snow Caps for her. "There you go." she says, passing them over and moving to unplug her bass from the back of the computer. "Well, you can certainly ask." she replies, cocking her head curiously as she moves the laptop to the bed, adjusting the screen so they can both see it.
"I have heard people talk about this off and on," Eshe looks at the little candies and then takes a sip of her drink, her eyes going wide. "Oh this is good!" She takes another longer drink before going on, "As I was saying, I've heard people talk about it and mention it in the context of vacations and activities and about it being a massive inconvenience and… well, you are going to think I'm a bit," she tries to think of the right word, "Thick for asking but. What is snow?"
Amy blinks in confusion for a few moments, then winces as she very obviously tries not to crack up with laughter. She manages to forestall the worst of it, but just when she's regained her composure, a fresh thought occurs to her and she giggles fitfully. "Heh, I dunno, Eshe, you're talking to someone from Florida." she giggles. "We're really not the best people to ask! It snowed a little like, three, four years ago, not much, either, maybe an eighth of a inch, if that. The whole town went _bonkers_!" she grins. "But, to answer your question. Okay, you've got rain, right?" she says, opening the laptop's DVD player and rolling over on the bed to snag the movie from the bookcase right by the bed. "Well, snow's basically the same thing, only it's ice crystals. It stacks up on the ground like sand. It's supposed to be really pretty when it snows." she smiles as she tucks the disc in the drive. "But since it also involves it being really cold, I dunno how big a fan I am." she adds, moving to dim the lights to near darkness. "There…that'll cut the glare down."
Eshe doesn't get upset when you laughs just a bit. "It's ok. I'm used to some of my questions making people laugh. You should have seen it when I asked what a bra was for." She winks and floats to a position where she is sitting on her stomach, popcorn, snow caps and Grape soda in reach. "It only ever got cold where I am from at night and then, well, never cold enough to form ice, except maybe in the mountains but those were very, very far away." Settling in to watch the movie, she grows quiet aside from the sounds of munching and sipping.
"Ha! Yeah…I bet that confused someone all to hell." Amy chuckles throatily. "I keep trying to imagine the look on the dude's face when you asked, cause it's just way funnier if it's a guy." she snickers, rolling onto her belly to settle in for the show. "But yeah, I bet it would get pretty cold in the desert." she muses. "Once the sun goes down, there wouldn't be any clouds to hold the heat in."
Eshe says, "Well, if it makes you feel any better, he as a man. A man from something called the Central Intelligence Agency." She chuckles and looks over to her new friend. "Apparently it's something of a matter of national security when a Neohuman from another country arrives in your country without a passport or papers. I was very confused about it but they seemed nice enough after they realized my situation."
"Huh…that's a _first_." Amy comments with real scorn in her tone, rolling her eyes a little. "Government doesn't cock something up! Film at eleven.'" she snerks. "And it was the CIA to boot…talk about your hat tricks." she chuckles, sipping at her own soda and muching quietly on some popcorn as Arnie proceeds to start blowing away women named Sarah Conner.
"Well," Eshe adds after a bit, "They didn't seem to want to suffer the 'Curse of the Mummy' that I threatened to lay on them if they continued to restrain me. It's amazing how convincing that can be when scarab beetles start pouring out of their coffee mugs." She grins wickedly before going back to watching Arnold. "He doesn't talk much. What's wrong with him?"
"Heh, yeah, that'd motivate the hell out of _me_, that's for sure." Amy chuckles. "I bet they probably wet their pants!" she giggles. "I'd probably need clean undies, somebody every did that to me." she adds, shaking her head a little. "Heh, it's because he's a…ya know what?" she looks over to Eshe with a sweet little grin. "Just watch, you'll find out what his deal is very soon now." she says, wagging her eyebrows happily. "Eshe…could you make me a promise?" she asks quietly.
The Egyptian girl looks over and nods. "I promise never to make scarab beetles come out of your coffee mug." There's a joking smile on her face as she says this and she rolls over in the air a bit during the love scene to look at Amy. "Sure though, what can I promise you?"
"Heh, you just did it." Amy chuckles, tossing the other girl a wink. "Hot damn, I forgot how hot Michael Beihn was when he was younger. Now he's all old and scraggly looking." she comments, shifting on the bed a little.
"Everyone gets older," Eshe points out with a tinge of melancholy before adding, "Well, everyone but me apparently. You know what's weird. You are going to grow up some day and maybe find a man to have children with and raise a family and grow old together and then pass on to the next life and I'll still be 16… I'll always be 16 until either someone kills me by force or the world ends." She takes a serious drink from her Grape soda and just watches the screen some more.
"Huh…well, the growing old part's gonna happen one way or the other…and maybe the getting married bit too…but kids?" she asks, taking her own pensive sip of soda. "No thanks. I don't think I'm 'mommy' material." she sighs. "Well, look at it this way, when I'm old and my boobs are dangling to my knees, think of how jealous I'll be when I see you and you're still all perky up top?" she winks. "Just stay outside of caning distance." she giggles, waving an imaginary cane at Eshe. "Damn whippersnappers!" she croaks.
Eshe laughs. "Even when you're old, I'll still technically be older. But who knows, maybe I can date Dracula. I hear he's always looking for a girl who won't ever get old. I might have to invest in a bigger neck cover though." She winks and goes back to watching the movie. Apparently, she's seen enough movies to know who Dracula is at least.
"Heh, at least you didn't say one of those sparkly bastards from the 'Twilight' movies." Amy chuckles, giving Eshe a thumbs up. "Sparkly vampires…what is the world coming to?" she sighs. And then, just when Sarah thinks the now blown in half Terminator's been stopped, the vivisected killbot rises up and begins crawling after her, the teeth mounted into its metallic skull giving its expression a nastily lurid quality.
"Ok…. what is that thing?" She stares at the screen in rapt interest. "It looks like a skeleton made of metal with evil glowing eyes, like one of Set's minions!" She grins like a madwoman and leans forward a bit more, floating just a bit closer to the screen.
"He's a Terminator." Amy replies simply. "He's basically an unstoppable killing machine. The evil computer wraps them in real human tissue so they can pass for human." she explains. "Only since they blew up the gas truck he was driving, all of his skin's melted off. So now all you see's the robot."
"Oh…. so he's actually an automaton!" Eshe likes this idea a lot. "How cool and he came back in time from the future to kill his enemy who won't even be born yet. Is that possible? I mean here and now, in reality to travel back through time? Because if it is, I could go back to when I was alive and… or well, maybe just after I was entombed and get the guy who did this to me. I don't think I'd want to stop it from happening because then I'd never have met you and… then I'd never have seen this movie and then I never could have gone back to stop it and so it would happen anyway but then I'd be here, watching this movie and it would happen…." She grimaches, "My head hurts.
"Heh, yeah…..causality's a bitch." Amy chuckles. "But to answer your question, far as I _know_, it isn't possible." she explains simply. "I mean, there's people that theorize it might be possible, but the theories make basically no sense at _all, and even if I understood them, we'd have to find something called a cosmic string and build a ship that could go at the speed of light." she shrugs simply. "Or something. Now, since there are Neohumans roaming around." she muses. "Maybe one of _them_ would be able to do it. Heh, maybe we oughta look into it?" she suggests, more in jest than in earnest. "And if we do find one, I am _totally_ going with you." she grins. "Though, you will have to buy me a pair of cool sunglasses." she winks. "Ah'll be bahk." she quotes the film with a horrible German accent.
Eshe chuckles and then blinks. "But the machines would know that if they eliminate John Connor before he is born that he will never exist so they won't send anyone back to kill him before he is born and so they…. ok, it's that again. Yeah, Causality really does suck." She chuckles and sips at her sods some more before trying the Snow Caps and munching. "Ooooo sweet and chocolatey!"
" Ha! I was wondering if you'd catch that little plot hole!" Amy grins proudly. "Score one for Eshe!" she says, sticking up her index and pinky in the time-honored 'devil horns'. "Heh, glad you like 'em." she smiles. "You can take the other box, too." she suggests. "I'm trying to get my fat ass in shape." she sighs, groaning playfully as she flops her head to the mattress. "Grape soda's bad enough…grape soda _and_ Sno-Caps? I'd have to swim to, like, Ireland to work all that off."
"Did I mention another thing I can't do is gain weight?" Eshe asks sheepishly, "Yes, you can hate me now. One of the blessings I was given by the Goddess Isis was perfect health. I don't get sick, I don't get fat and I can't even by poisoned. So I can't get intoxicated anymore. Mixed blessing that."
"Consider yourself duly hated." Amy grumbles, then tosses a few kernels of popcorn at the other girl. "Though…" she muses, nibbling on some more popcorn. "Not being able to get wasted would kind of suck." she adds, frowning thoughtfully. "Then again, getting wasted's half of what nearly got me a ten year sentence…so…eh…yeah….mixed blessing." she chuckles. "So, didja like the movie?" she asks, switching off the DVD player software.
"Oh, very much so!" Eshe lands on the ground and picks up the stray kernels that bounced off of her, tossing them away into the trash. "I liked how Sarah started out so soft and by the end it was she, not Kyle Reese, who killed the Terminator. Very good transformation on her part and the ending left so much open. Even though John Connor is born, the machines will still destroy humanity. There is no way to stop that, it's destiny."
"Yeah, it's kind of like 'It's a Wonderful Life' with guns." Amy grins. "There's a sequel, two sequels, actually. The first one is _amazing_, every bit as good as this one was. The second kind of sucked. Never saw the third." she shrugs. "But there's a TV series based on it and it was _really_ good." she smiles. "Sarah Conner's kind of a personal hero of mine."
"Then I can see why you wanted me to see this. Can we watch the sequel next?" Eshe really seems into this. "I do like continuing stories, especially when there are fights. Good action scenes really make my heart pound and my desire for battle surge. Oh… that reminds me, I kind of like to fight myself."
"Heh, me too, sometimes." Amy replies with a slightly feral grin. "Especially bullies….I _love_ fighting bullies, even if I lose." she nods, rolling over to snag T2 out of the bookcase and put the first one back. "First time I ever got in serious trouble was because I saw like, eight kids ganging up on a fat boy." she adds. "They didn't think a ten year old with a backpack was a serious opponent." she smiles malevolently, opening the case and popping the DVD into the player. "The ringleader knew better when the dust settled." And with that admission, she hits play.