thesettingsun | Recolle IC Inbox

[it's not often that she shows up at the Inkwell these days, but she decides that she deserves it, what with how the last few days have been a bit stressful. plucking a book off the shelf when she gets there, it takes no time for her to get absorbed, holding the book in one hand, her drink in another that's sporting some white bandages.

the problem with Grell getting absorbed is that she tends to forget where she is. who's around. leading to at one point her to say out loud-]

Elizabeth, don't you dare marry him.

[that wasn't....as much of a whisper as she would have liked.]

[The Inkwell is an important place for those having a shitty time, and practically anyone with Retrospec can be considered 'having a shitty time' right now. Sometimes, you just need to have some booze named after famous authors who probably also had a shitty time. That's how famous authors are.

Shuji's book is science fiction, not romance, but he certainly has a comment when she speaks up.]

Political marriage for the good of the kingdom, or a boyfriend she hasn't realized isn't what he seems?

[He has read a few romance novels in his day, though they aren't his favorites.]

Charming scoundrel who's set to make off with her inheritance after murdering her. The heroine of this one overheard him discussing a slow poisoning method. So I guess you could say the latter.

[she answers, slowly coming back to reality and taking a drink from her glass. she could be embarrassed, or she could make the most of this.]

And what about yours? What sort of turmoil do your heroes find themselves in?

Who marries someone they know talks about poison, even if they don't know he's poisoning them?

[Really, that's just stupid. Romance novel heroines can be like that.]

The heroes have just discovered that the species that's been infesting human worlds and wiping out human populations as a side effect of their - what's the word for terraforming when you're not trying to make it like Earth? - is actually intelligent, and now have to find a way to communicate and convince their leaders that humans can't survive in the same conditions as them.

Oh, that sounds marvelously high stakes. I'm not terribly knowledgeable in science fiction - would you recommend it to someone who's a more casual reader of the genre?

[it's a literary bar. why not discuss books with strangers?]

[That's practically what it's for! Besides the alcohol.]

It's mostly soft science fiction, so you should be fine - anything that's actually complicated gets an explanation. I like hard science fiction, but when the author expects you to understand what M-theory is without any help in the text, it's annoying at best.

[she chuckles at that.]

Like reading a textbook that expects you to know all the components and popular procedures before you even crack the spine. Even when I know what it's talking about, sometimes it has to be collected out of memory.

Exactly. When I'm reading a book for fun, I don't want to also be doing advanced physics.

[He doesn't like his required math and science classes in college anyway.]

It's just gatekeeping. 'You must be this smart to read science fiction, and if the book doesn't make you memorize five equations, or god forbid, it gets something wrong, it's not real science fiction.'

Usually the authors are as insufferable as their books. It says something about a writer, whatever they put out into the world most often reflects something in their character. Not to say those who write horror are all monsters and those who write romance simply are looking for frivolous moments - but the best books have something achingly real in them. A heart hidden in the pages, softly beating in the form of paragraphs, ink blooded and too, too close.

[who let her go on these tangents in public. who lets her gesture and pause at the right moments for that.]

[Shuji, apparently, because he's nodding along.]

Exactly! Obviously not everybody who writes horror wants to actually go out and become a serial killer, but people write novels because there's something they care about in their stories. You can tell absolutely tell the difference between the parts of the books the author was most invested in and what's in there just to move the plot along.

Naturally - the parts that touch you the most in a book and speak the loudest. And it might not even be something critical to the plot like a twist or a climatic moment, it could just be one scene, one setting, and suddenly it's like you're no longer here, but there.

There's nothing better. People rag on escapism but in moderation, it's important to have somewhere else to be when you're tired of the stuff around you.

[...he's just personally bad at the moderation part.]

You speak like someone well versed in the subject.

[she smiles, and takes a drink from her glass.]

I'm Grell. It's a pleasure.

Shuji! Nice to meet you too, I never turn down getting to talk to someone who knows what they're talking about.

[A literature bar isn't the most unlikely place to meet a fellow literature nerd, but it's still a good experience.]

And I never turn down a good recommendation for a new book. I need something to unwind with, and there's nothing like getting immersed in a new world to do the trick.

[she's still faithful to another bar, but it never hurt to patronize this one, and let the owner know she was true when she'd complimented it.]

[Chuuya is very cool and runs a cool bar, obviously everyone should compliment it.]

Don't I know it. This month has been hell...

Really? How bad is hell, if you want to complain to someone who can't judge?

Do you have that Retrospec app?

[That affects his complaining significantly. Can't go babble about things people won't believe, or they'll think he's nuts.]

I've had it since it started appearing in the lives of their chosen few. What plague has it brought down on you?

[one of these days, she's going to say no, just to watch someone's reaction.]

[She's mean. Shuji would too if he weren't so scared of being punched in the face.]

Do you know how hard it is to get to classes on time when you're smaller than an ant? It's pretty hard.

Probably as hard as it is to get to work when you have the morning shift. I'll take the app spouting off secrets again over that any day. At least your phone you can turn off.

[she nods sympathetically. you had to build in extra hours to figure it all out.]

And I thought the stalker photos were freaky...

[They still are, but not on the level of changing reality.]

I agree. I had to take the battery out of my phone before I felt safe again.

[reality changing was something she was coming to terms with, but there was no reason for what happened earlier. no rhyme or answer.]

There's....not a why behind it.

As far as I can tell, the 'why' is to fuck with our heads.

[The stalking, and the shrinking. Both of them are just to make them lose their grip on sanity.]

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5/23, inkwell.

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