fandomtownies | Caritas, Sunday

Brooke was bored, which clearly meant venturing out for a drink or two, because there wasn’t much else to do on this island.

“What’s with the shark?”

"I don't know," Atton said plainly, "I walked in, there it was. Guess someone's longing for the sharks."

“I mean, sure, I guess that’s something people can do,” Brooke said. “This place is weird.”

Sometimes it just needed to be said.

"Yeah, you don't have to tell me that," Atton said. "At least there isn't shark coming out of the taps or something."

“I’m really going to need you to tell me that hasn’t happened before,” she said warily.

"Not in my time," Atton said, "But that doesn't tell you much."

“Well, then I’ll have whatever’s on tap. As long as there are no sharks,” she said. “”If there are, there will be a Brooke-shaped hole in the wall in a minute.”

Ghanima was not sure what was going on around the island, but the good mood was enough to get her out of her rooms and away from the endless amount of paperwork that the Princess Royal had to read and sign and decree, and her wanderings brought her into the bar.

"Tequila, please," she said, taking a seat at the bar. It was the closest to anything brewed in-sietch, and Ghani liked the bite.

Ah, yes, paperwork. Though in Liam's case, being at the bar was actually a direct result of doing the paperwork rather than an attempt to avoid it.

He didn't even know what 'Recycling Amnesty Day' was, much less why people were complaining to the Sheriff's office about why it was no longer scheduled at regular intervals. Wasn't that the sort of thing people ought to bring up with the Mayor?

Anyway. Long story short, he felt he deserved a beer. He was about to flag Tino down when one of the other patrons caught his attention.

Not because of her eyes, but something about her psychic presence.

"I don't think we've met," he said, wandering over and taking a seat. "I'm Liam."

"Ghanima Atreides," she said, extending a hand. "I teach up at the school, mostly esoteric subjects to force the students to do mental cartwheels."

The members of her Other Memory were finding him very interesting, but for reasons they couldn't pinpoint. Or rather, flashes of what he could be, but clearly was not.

There was a flicker of... something... that crossed Liam's expression as Ghanima extended her hand. Not quite distaste, but there was definite hesitation before he took the offered hand, the reddish mark of the shaqarava visible on his own palm.

"That sounds more interesting, at least, than being in charge of law enforcement in a town with virtually no crime to speak of," he replied.

"Well, technically the squirrels are generally trespassing, to get the information they have, though I suppose it would be difficult to know which one, let alone catch them," Ghanima mused, taking the first of the shots lined up for her. "What is punishment, to their minds? Enforced sobriety? Electronic monitoring? Assigning them to only cover whatever class or person they hate the most?"

"If I had to take a guess, it'd be that first option," Liam replied. "From what little information the station actually has on them, I think their job is mostly voluntary. They just enjoy gossip."

"Alas, the island seems to run on it," she laughed. "Gossip, drama, and whatever nonsense it has decided to cook up this week."

She glanced towards the roof. "--And, mind you, that is not an invitation!"

Ghanima firmly subscribed to the theory that the island was a bit more sentient than anyone gave it credit for, and sometimes did things for the sheer entertainment value.

"That you felt the need to specify that is just proof of how strange this place can get," Liam said with a smirk. "Like the kids last week. I was not expecting that one."

Mostly because he'd yet to hit his one-year mark on the island just yet, so while he'd learned to roll with the strange things that happened, none of the strangeness had repeated itself for him.

"That tends to be yearly," she informed him, laughing. "I've had a few, off-and-on, but I make sure to make class accommodations for all my students, no matter the age."

"But there's a few of them that are cyclical in nature, but always seem to catch us by surprise at first."

"Is being turned into children ourselves one of those?" Liam had to ask. That one was still edging out the kids showing up for pure weirdness factor, mostly because he'd never been a child in the first place. Of course, he’d never had children either, but a potential future was somehow less strange than a past that had never existed.

Edited 2018-04-16 04:17 (UTC)

"Yes," Ghanima admitted with a bit of a smile. "We tend to range in age, and it hits the students too."

"There's also the times when you wake up a different gender. Those can cause a bit of a shock, for those used to having a very specific and concrete sense of self. I am my twin brother's perfect image." Her smile took on a bit of an impish set as she reached for another glass. "We may have used the opportunity to spread confusion, and prank my niece."

Liam laughed. "Did she find out the truth?" he asked.

"I honestly don't know how I'd feel about waking up as another gender," he admitted. "I mean, this is the only body I know."

"Hania is a clever girl, she figured it out eventually," she answered. "Many times people have joked that Leto and I are one soul in two bodies, but we do not mirror each other's mannerisms perfectly. Especially now that we've both spent so much time in Fandom."

"I found it rather amusing, but it helps, I suppose, that I knew the face well. And while I may be female, I can always consult with someone who identifies as male at any time."

She may not have the skill with the male members of her Tau that Leto did, but that was unsurprising given her affinity for the female members of her family.

Many of whom were arguing about Liam, loudly, and Ghanima was this close to pulling the curtain and cutting them off from her mind for a bit.

Liam frowned slightly. He was not a true telepath, but he did have a psychic awareness that most humans lacked. And right now... well. His mother might have described the sensation as one where his 'ears were burning'.

"Are they here too, then?" Liam couldn't help but ask, though his tone was a little distracted.

"There have been many Atreides at Fandom, and usually at cross timelines and cross purposes," she replied. "My step-mother was a student when I was sent here to teach by Leto, who then later arrived younger and as a student. And so, paradox skips gleefully around and gives us all headaches. Neither Irulan nor Leto is currently in residence, however, regardless of age or alternate universe."

"Have you encountered the Jedi yet? They make us look positively tame in timeline nonsense."

Edited 2018-04-16 05:08 (UTC)

"I don't think I have," Liam said. Technically, that wasn't true. He'd met Anakin, after all. The other man had just never used the word 'Jedi', though. "I'm almost afraid to ask."

"Get a few drinks," she laughed, leaning over the bar to grab a napkin and pen. "I'll diagram it out to you with what I know, although there is more history from when before I began teaching."

She sketched out a very.... wonky timeline, with branches and loops and familial ties and universe diversions, all the while trying to explain what she knew about Jedi.

This was going to take a drink. Or two or three.

Ghanima capped her pen with a flourish, and offered him a grin. "See what I mean? It makes the Imperial and familial politics I deal with look utterly mundane."

Hopefully Liam wouldn't end up with a hangover tomorrow, or a headache from trying to puzzle out that diagram, since over-the-counter painkillers were off-limits for him.

"I don't really have the head for it myself, but I know enough about politics to know they could never be 'mundane'," he said with a slight grin.

"They're dreadful, which is why I'd rather teach," Ghanima admitted. "It's bad enough here, contained to one planet, but we have far too many inhabited worlds to make it easy."

“Inhabited worlds?” Liam echoed. “Are you -“ he broke off, as he’d been intending to ask if she wasn’t entirely human. Her eyes, after all, looked Taelon. “Never mind,” he said, sheepishly.

"Human?" Ghanima filled-in, smiling in a way that it was clear she took no offense. "I am... human-adjacent, I suppose. I'm from over ten thousand years into an Earth's future, so there's been some evolutionary drift and such, but most citizens of the Imperium are standard human, if that term even applies, given that we forgot where we left this planet."

"Personally, I am human, just a bit...more. Some people around here use the term 'mutant' to refer to humans with extra genetic abilities, and it's as good a term as any, if not totally accurate."

"Human-adjacent," Liam mused. "I like that."

"Your eyes- reminded me a bit of someone from back home," he explained. Several someones, technically. "So I couldn't help but wonder if you were perhaps from a world something like mine."

Ghanima hummed thoughtfully. "And where are you from? Is it a desert planet, third from its sun, with two moons?"

"No, just Washington," Liam admitted. "But there were, for a time- a race of beings called the Taelons, who came to my version of Earth."

"With eyes like mine? Fascinating," Ghanima said. "Are you from an alternate-Earth, then, or a future one?"

"That's about where the similarity ends," Liam admitted. "But it was enough to make me wonder. 'Alternate', I suppose, as it's the same year there as here. But the Taelons- and others- had been influencing human evolution for millions of years."

"That is -- partially -- why I have these," she laughed, gesturing to her eyes. "Everyone, if you live on Arrakis long enough, gets the Eyes of Ibad. Usually, children's eyes have shifted entirely by around twelve or thirteen years old, but I was born with mine."

"Our genetic meddlers were an order of humans for thousands upon thousands of years. We've... seriously curtailed their ambitions and abilities, for the moment. It will be a long game of chess to see what, if any, control they win back."

"Well," Liam said drily, "the Taelons ended up meddling themselves right out of existence, so that's always a possibility." His tone was flippant, but there was an underlying note of regret there. He was supposed to have been their salvation, after all.

"There is a cost for having the hubris to think you can create -- and control -- perfection," she said softly. "Though the lost of an entire species, regardless of their nature, is always regrettable, and makes the universes a bit smaller and a bit colder."

"I didn't always agree with their actions, their plans for humanity," Liam said, fiddling with the napkin upon which Ghanima had drawn her diagrams regarding the Jedi. "But that wasn't the outcome I had wanted for them, either." You know, because one person's desires when it came to these things mattered so much.

Edited 2018-04-21 20:07 (UTC)

"One tequila coming up," Atton said easily, snagging a small glass and a bottle. "Haven't seen your face around in a while."

"Paperwork," Ghanima said dryly. "Mountains and mountains of paperwork and treaties and laws and disputes and I swear Leto sends me some of these to spite whatever ambassador has to deal with me in negotiations."

"He is especially fond of sending me the Guild disputes. For some reason, the Navigators have taken a dislike to both of us."

It was because they had a stranglehold on the Guild's supply of melange, and Ghanima had already 'dealt' with a few black market supply lines and did not care who knew it.

Edited 2018-04-16 04:50 (UTC)

"Wouldn't surprise me if he sent them to you so he doesn't have to deal with paperwork," Atton offered, pouring her drink.

He nudged the glass across the bar. "It's what I'd do."

"If it means he can spend more time with Hania, Alice, or Sparkle, then I shall do my best not to attempt to stab any dignitaries or light any of it on fire, although there's one farming rights dispute I desperately wish to shred into tiny bits," she said, taking the glass and giving him a smile. "Sadly, everyone seems to think I'm the more patient of the two of us."

"Dangerous assumption to make about anybody," Atton said. He leaned back. "Especially a woman."

"The Imperium has some... different views on gender roles," Ghanima replied, shaking her head in frustration. "With the Fremen, it is the individual, although there are some very distinct gender roles, some of which are unpleasant to people who did not grow up there. I understand why they are and how it came about, but it is still slow to change them."

"The Empire, however; We have an entire order of women who hold great power and are seen as almost -- I think perhaps the best comparison would be a slightly-off Jedi Order. One who is impartial, places the needs of the universe -- or rather, what their Sisterhood feels are the needs -- and have great physical and mental capabilities, far beyond any standard human. They have been reverend for centuries as guardians, diplomats, and more. Women, or rather, highborn women, are seen as more powerful than men in many ways."

"Of course, they are also called witches, and there's accusations of them being immortal, and while it's not the pure truth, those people are not wrong."

"They also ran a secret breeding program using their members as part of a genetic chess game, and when it went careening beyond their control due to love, they ended up with Leto and I, much to their eternal dismay."

"Which, most likely frustrates them to no end, for it means there is a princess royal sitting beside the throne who has all of their power, knowledge, training and none of the loyalty."

"Well, who doesn't like running centuries-long breeding programs and winding up with Leto karking Atreides," Atton said, pulling a face. "Serves them right, I guess."

"I am signing that as his name the next time I have to fake his signature," Ghanima decided thoughtfully. "See how long it takes him to notice."

She loved her twin more than life itself. She also loved pranking the shit out of him.

Caritas, Sunday

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