OOM: Sick Goth, bored now

[ostro_goth]

It has not been a week yet, since Teja took ill; and Guppy had said to stay in his room for a week, lest he 'infect the universe', so Teja does that. But his fever and the hallucinations have receded somewhat, and he merely coughs and blows his nose much, now, and listlessly sprawls on his rug, too listless to read, even though he has books -- a surfeit of luxuries, like a modern man has, Teja chides himself, but that does not incite him to read any clever books about the end of the Roman empire, either.

So last night, he ventured out to find something else to read, and happened upon the Swan King, who was drinking by himself at the bar and assured him that shape-shifters didn't get sick, not in his world. When Teja told him what he was looking for, Donovan had said that many people liked to watch sentimental movies while they were recovering from something, in his experience. That most of his experience was about women, Donovan didn't say.

So, Teja asked the bar for sentimental movies and something to watch them with, and he got a stack of cases that contained disks much like his music CDs, and a player much like his CD player, also, but with a screen like a omputer attached to it. Teja took it all back to his room, but felt tired, and went to sleep.

This morning, however, he is awake again, sprawled on his rug, and instead of chiding himself for indolence, Teja is watching a movie, about the dramatic wreck of some huge, great ship, with thousands of people on it that are, to judge from the beginning of the tale, all going to drown. If any one comes to Teja's room, the rats will open the door, and Teja will look up from the little device which is playing quite lively music at the moment.

Comments

[mogget_cat]

Yrael greets Count, bumping his head lightly against Count's ear and purring. He asks after them both, to see how things are.

[ostro_goth]

Teja looks up from his movie at the loud purr, and the cat-noises, while Count informs Yrael that things are nice, but his human is still being Really Strange.

"Greetings, Yrael!" Teja says.

[mogget_cat]

"Greetings, Teja," says the not'cat, as he inquires how Really Strange Count's human is being. Hallucinating strange or some new kind?

"How goes the day?"

[ostro_goth]

Count answers that his human keeps staring at the noisy thing, and sneezing and sniffling a lot, and sometimes will fiercely hug and cuddle one of the cats, which is very nice, but still Really Strange!

"It goes slow and quiet," Teja says. "I am better, but not well -- how can that be, if 'better' is better than well?"

[mogget_cat]

Yrael leans on Count's shoulder for a moment as he approaches Teja. His human is just working on getting better. He'll be kind of strange until then.

"Better is closer to well than you were before, if not completely well yet," Yrael replies. "What are you watching?"

[ostro_goth]

"It is called a movie," Teja says. "It is like theatre, but preserved, and on a screen, like CDs are for music?"

Pause.

"Donovan, the were-swan, said sentimental movies are good while one recovers, so I am watching this, which is about the dreadful sinking of a great ship."

[mogget_cat]

"Jason, Elizabeth and I once held a movie night, some time ago, and watched movies with poorly-represented were-wolves in them, and I have watched some over others' shoulders," Yrael says, moving to settle next to the Goth King.

"I do not think I have ever seen a sentimental movie, before, though. Only those full of humorous situations, or of great violence."

[ostro_goth]

"This one is full of drama, with all those men, women and children that are going to die a horrible, watery death," Teja says, "and also, there is a doomed, forbidden love story between a young working man, and a noble maiden given to another, that cannot possibly end well."

Count settles on his human's back again, iviting Yrael to share the comfortable spot; the human will not move much.

[mogget_cat]

Yrael might perch upon the Goth's shoulder in order to have a better view of the screen, then.

"Ugh, water," he makes a face. "That's never a good way to die."

Chokes you to death, does horrible disfiguring things to your corpse, and then there's the smell. The Dead brought back from those who died recently at sea are some of the most disgusting to face. Luckily, Yrael's not had the experience of helping the Abhorsen with that specific situation in many a decade.

[ostro_goth]

"That is what makes the tale so sad," Teja says. "One knows that all these people are going to die, even as they are merry and dance still, at this moment."

[mogget_cat]

"I do not know the story; what causes the ship to sink?"

...as the movie shows the ship in question...

"Other than the fact that it's huge enough to seem as though the only place they were expecting it to go was the ocean floor?"

[ostro_goth]

"I know not yet, either," Teja says. "All those men claim that it cannot be sunk, because all that iron is filled with air, or some such thing."

[mogget_cat]

"Very strange," says the not'cat. "Or very foolish."

[ostro_goth]

"I think most ships in the future are made that way," Teja says, "instead of wood, as they were in my time. But this is truly huge, with many storeys and levels and decks and corridors and cabins. These are the poor people's quarters, that leave their old home forever for the lands beyond the oceans."

[mogget_cat]

"They seem merry enough, for those with impending dooms," he says, a warm, fuzzy weight on Teja's shoulder.

"I have heard of ships made of iron, in Ancelstierre, though I have not seen them."

[ostro_goth]

Teja reaches up to stroke the cat on his shoulder; Count stretches his neck so his ears are touched as well.

"They know nothing of the doom that awaits them; they think the ship cannot sink," Teja says. "That is part of what makes this tale so sad!"

[mogget_cat]

Human hubris, Yrael would mutter, but he merely purrs into the stroking hand.

[ostro_goth]

Teja may be the only one that has ever watched this movie without knowing beforehand why the ship sank.

So Yrael and Count will see a half-sick Ostrogoth deeply shocked and in the grip of breathless suspense as the Titanic nears the iceberg, cannot evade it it, and is struck.

"Ahhhh, it is too large, too slow -- what hubris to tempt fate thus!" Teja hisses, at the very moment of collision.

[mogget_cat]

Exactly as I thought, Yrael does not smug outloud.

"They apparently didn't plan for this eventuality, it seems," Yrael says, watching the reactions of those on board. "Those spare little boats will not hold half of the people aboard."

[ostro_goth]

"No, and thus they will drown miserably, all of them," Teja says, shaking his head. "Oh, those poor, doomed people! All those children, and the lovely woman that looks like Demeter, but with red hair!"

He sighs deeply; the movie has truly captured his attention.

[mogget_cat]

Yrael doesn't voice his dislike of the situation beyond a low rumble, kneading his claws into the rug where he can reach.

Not into Teja's shoulder.

The main female character looks too like his friend Ophelia for his liking.

[ostro_goth]

"They will sink," Teja says, sighing deeply, "and I am sure many vile things will be done, before that happens."

He is truly gripped by what happens on that small screen; he is not used to tales told in that way.

[mogget_cat]

"Quite probably."

He smiles slightly as the girl on the screen spits in her fiance's face. "Even if she's not thinking rationally, that was well-done."

[ostro_goth]

"She has pride, and fire, and a fighting spirit," Teja says, nodding approval, "and she does look oddly like Demeter, despite the hair, at times."

[mogget_cat]

"She looks like my friend Ophelia did, before she left here."