palomacchi kissing booth sept. 2020

[marsascending]

[ did she set up a little booth? maybe.

will she pour you a drink? probably. ]

Hello! Limited-time engagement only, so here's your last chance to get kisses from me before I'm departing for parts unknown!

...some restrictions apply.

Comments

[marsascending]

I never said anything about kissing, just drinking all of those delightful concoctions at once.

For science.

[nihilmancy]

[concern


followed by stubbornness]

Science is it?

[one by one, all down the hatch.]

[marsascending]

Science!

How do you feel?

[nihilmancy]

The same.

[ unimpressed ]

[marsascending]

Wah, boring.

...although your hair's fun, now! So there's something.

[nihilmancy]

W-What?!

[ surprised ]

[marsascending]

It's very fetching! Very exciting! Very now!

[nihilmancy]

[brings a lock of hair in front of her eyes—

surprised and delighted ]

Oh, wow, this is really happening, huh!

[marsascending]

Now this is what I call science.

[nihilmancy]

[ she laughs, but there's sadness in it. ]

Ha. I do wish we could have been closer friends.

[ regretful ]

I may have been a better BARiTONE than I thought.

[marsascending]

[ she lets out a brief, short bark of laughter. ]

No, you absolutely wouldn't have been.

Now, one last question, and then go have fun with your sparklehair.

[nihilmancy]

Tell me about a Martian cultural institution that is significantly different from something humans have.

[marsascending]

Hm.

[ she claps a couple times, slowly, and then drums her fingers on the table before beginning to speak. ]

We don't conceive of family the same way you seem to. Perhaps the ul-kiimas have that kind of bond, small as they tend to be, but I'd imagine for a human it would be rather like being born into an apprenticeship.

That said, it still bears some resemblance to human customs of the time, wherein children would take over their parents' trades in due time, or noble children were expected to walk very constrained paths, but for some reason nearly all humans I speak to think it sounds constraining and unbearable.

[nihilmancy]

Oh? Some sort of... heredity occupation system? Ah, no, it doesn't sound like it's linked to parentage at all. No families...

Hmm, well, so much as I do value freedom, it's also not for me to make any sort of broad judgements, especially on something that people find important themselves and form an entire cultural landscape. Er, I think.

[marsascending]

Quite. It's not for you at all.

[ :)))) ]

Do you know why I became an anthropologist, Sekhmet?

[nihilmancy]

To thoroughly dissect the things earth people were saying about you, and turn it against them?

[marsascending]

Because I hate every other anthropologist and wanted to fuck with them.

That's all.

[nihilmancy]

Oh, that's a very good reason, and I'm pretty certain I feel similarly about sorcerers.

[marsascending]

What I'm saying is:

Quit acting like you are one.

[nihilmancy]

Oh. Y-Yes, okay.

[ she'll... try. ]

[marsascending]

Maybe you'll surprise me.

[nihilmancy]

It's not that I'm trying to pry into things I shouldn't. I like knowing things. If I shouldn't have asked, if I've been disrespectful, you can tell me. I've never considered you, or your culture, some trivial trinket for amusement.

[marsascending]

And I've heard that so, so many times before.

There's a difference between knowing and understanding, dear girl, and that's the last lesson I'll impart to you.

So that's all.

[nihilmancy]

[ so on the one hand, this is a correct lesson, and sekhmet gets that

but also she thinks Paloma is taking this as a chance to mess with her too, and was deliberate unclear with her intentions, and baited her into that response because

it's paloma??? so she grits her teeth for a moment, and then chuckles. ]

Haha. That's definitely the sort of thing you'd leave somebody with. I clearly have a long way to go, yet.

[marsascending]

[ sometimes it's all of the above, kiddo.

she just smiles. ]

Enjoy the rest of the game, then.