elnysa | [text/video] un: linneus

Entry tags:

[text/video] un: linneus

Good day, everyone.

While I hate for my second of these... missives to be another message asking for help, I fear that is precisely what it is and I do beg your patience.

I recently came home to find a large egg sitting on my doorstep. With little idea what to do I brought it home, kept it swaddled and warm and eventually it hatched. The animal that emerged... I have never seen its like before. It appears to be a sort of horse, but much shorter, with a longer neck and a smaller face. And a good deal... fluffier? Than any horse I've ever seen.

She has taken well to eating grass, and has shown to particularly favour munching on my flowerbeds. It seems she is managing well enough - flourishing, even. But I had hoped someone might enlighten me as to what kind of creature she is, and whether there might be other foods I can provide for her?

Also a name - I confess I have always struggled terribly with naming things! So any suggestions would be quite welcomed.

[the text is followed up by a brief video clip - slightly wobbly, as Linneus turns the camera on himself-]

So that you have an idea of what it is you are naming...

[turning the camera around, the scene is quite cosy now that his home is settled again. A fire crackles away, and there is a small table near his armchair bearing a cup of tea, his feet resting on a small stool. The cosiness would be complete perhaps with a blanket, but his "creature", dozing with her head on his lap, is more than making up for the lack of one.

To those familiar, a llama indoors is probably a strange sight - stranger still this llama's size, as she can't be more than three feet tall. She snores, and there is the sound of Linneus chuckling softly before the video feed is cut.]

((Please feel free to flood Linn with name suggestions for the miniature llama he now has? ))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Well, it's not like I'm an expert... I just know roughly where they lived on my former planet, and that they're herbivores - you found that out already!

[Quick, think of something more! Something fun!]

And they spit!

[Nailed it.]

Oh, I do hope not! [quite fervently] Perhaps that is a trick she hasn’t mastered yet?

But she is actually quite good at taking instructions, not doing something if I tell her. We managed to get through the day without her troubling my flowers.

[more precisely what is left of them...]

M-Maybe so! [There's really no being sure about anything on this planet, but now Atsushi feels like he's summoned spitting by upsetting some kind of cosmic balance - like calling it has made it true.] And if she does end up spitting, maybe you could train her to spit on burglars? Look - like a guard llama!

[He really, really needs to stop talking - but he can't! He's on a roll now, and trying to fix his mistake only makes everything ten times worse, as usual - which makes him want to fix things ten times harder, etc. etc. It's a vicious circle.

Fortunately there is actual good news to focus on.]

That's great! I'm glad that you're getting along already.

Like a guard llama.

[yes, this is a fearsome creature with its head in Linneus' lap. Fearsome.]

Well I've never seen anything quite like her before, so I was fascinated immediately. And I had helped tend horses in the past - she is not so terribly different...

...

[Yeah, he's just. Not going to say anything. Ever again, if he has a choice...]

It's... not like she could bite anyone.

[So spitting is her best option! Probably. Maybe... At least Atsushi is talking again? And with Linneus talking about his past, Atsushi can feel genuinely happy for him.]

I see. I'm glad that you found a new companion.

As for names... I don't think I'm any good at those. Maybe Curly...?

[Alternatively: Larry or Moe??]

She nips, sometimes. When I am hand-feeding her, though, so I'm not so sure she means to.

[a pause, giving the name some thought, a little smile]

Curly, is it? Because of her hair?

Yes...

Sorry, that wasn't a very good suggestion.

Well, my own efforts haven’t been very good, if I am strictly honest.

Perhaps... that can be a sort of nickname?

Even so, I think she deserves a better one.

She looks a little like a cloud? But I don't know if that would work as a name, especially for a girl...

I'm not educated in other languages, but is the word for cloud prettier in any of them - more feminine?

And speaking of names, have you one of your own? Mine is Linneus.

I don't really know any languages except Japanese... There, it would be kumo.

[Not necessarily feminine. Still kind of cute.]

Ah - of course! My name is Atsushi. Nakajima Atsushi. It's nice to meet you!

Kumo.

[he will add it to the list. A little confused at Japanese naming conventions, though-]

Nakajima is your first name...?

Maybe Kumoko? To make it more feminine.

No, that's my family name... Atsushi is my given name. You're free to use either, of course!

[Atsushi, that doesn't... make things any more clear...]

Would you prefer Mr Nakajima? Or Master Atsushi?

[he has been told to do away with titles entirely, but that is difficult for him when it’s so connected to manners and politeness for him.]

Forgive me, I don’t see how Kumoko is more feminine? Is this about your language - [careful to copy the pronunciation he heard-] Japanese?

Please, there's no need for titles! I suspect you're older than me, and his planet isn't big on formality anyway... Just "Atsushi" will do.

[Atsushi was the same, but he's moving away from that a little, finally. Only took him half a year.]

Yes, that's right. A lot of girls' names end in -ko. But not all of them! For example, where I worked, there was an Akiko and a Hirako, but also a Naomi and a Kyouka.

It is strange for me. And I may forget.

[and there is no decree keeping him from using them elsewhere - speaking of Atsushi to others, for example.]

Those are unusual names.

Then, do whatever you're comfortable with. But please don't worry about titles on my account.

I guess Naomi is a little different..? The rest aren't so strange, where I'm from.

I shall try not to. I simply... warn you that I might not succeed every time!

[a gentle laugh]

They're just strange to me, then, but I am very poorly-travelled.

That's quite all right!

[He'll be kind of embarrassed if he's treated with too much respect, though, oops.]

It's always a little strange to ask this, here, but... where exactly are you from?

My country? Its name was Ivore. It was a small country, land-locked. It was similar to this country in some ways, though the principal city was perhaps a little bigger.

And there was nothing above us but the sun, and the moon and her stars.

... It makes you wonder, doesn't it? If there was anything like Thesa at home, too.

[It makes him wonder, anyway. He's never considered himself especially knowledgeable, but the Natha really brought home how much the populace can be ignorant of.]

Was it a peaceful country?

A little. Some individuals speak of these technologies as common place, but - I cannot speak for more educated minds in my country, but in my case they are something I could never have conceived of

[what better way to keep something hidden?]

In my time it was, yes. There was some strife with the neighbouring country, but it had simmered down probably before I was born.

There were still... tension, certainly, and if the gossip was to be believed there was a marriage of the royal houses being planned to ease that.

I see... That tends to be the best way to keep the peace.

[And Atsushi thinks it might be a good option here, as well. An Empress and a King - why wouldn't they get married?

Still, marriage is a personal choice, in the end. Or it should be.]

It's a shame that doesn't seem like a realistic option, here.

One would hope.

[a pause, gathering his thoughts]

This union, it was decided upon before the king's health started to fail, and only because he and the ruler of Verone were older. They had seen what the countries were like in their youth, what they were like at odds, and how that changed once the swords were sheathed and the grudges were set aside in favour of cooperation. They saw the difference, they decided which they liked better, and the union was their way of securing peace before they passed their thrones on. It had its supporters and detractors, of course, but it was planned in the best of intentions, I think.

But if I may presume... Olympia and Wyver are each too independent. And I would venture there was no small amount of pride at stake, too.

[It's a beautiful story. Even if, in Atsushi's opinion, a marriage of convenience shouldn't be the norm, it can clearly work as a political statement. When it comes to keeping the peace, no sacrifice is too great.]

Yes... I think that pride is the real problem, here. And I understand that a lot has happened in the past - but this is the present! Petty grudges should be set aside, if everyone suffers otherwise.

... Maybe that's not a bad name for your llama: Peace.

no subject

I have direct experience of this :/

oh God, my sympathies :/

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

In a parallel world, Linneus uses the name, messes up the intonation. Calls her "spider" every time.

I mean, if you have ant lions, why not spider llamas?

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Oops, I did go all text-wise with that last one, I'm sorry!

it happens! i once forgot i was on network and magically switched to action; it can always be worse

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject