milliways_bar | (no subject)

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It's the day before Christmas Eve and the Bennet household is in a flurry of preparation for the twelve days of celebration that will soon be upon them. The kitchen is full of the makings for pudding, mincemeat pies, and gingerbread. The men are out in the woods procuring a Yule log. And the girls are in charge of gathering and arranging the greenery for the house.

The Milliways door obligingly swings open ahead of a cloaked figure whose upper half is hidden behind an armful of holly and evergreen.

A peevish voice issues from behind the branches.

"Kitty!" Mary is walking with the assurance of someone who is certain she is in her own entryway. "Come back here and take some of these! I can't see where I'm going."

Other patrons may want to shout, dodge, or prepare for a Christmasy collision.

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"You've been barnapped," says someone who doesn't sound at all like Ako.

And also sounds nothing at all like Kitty. Or Lizzie or Lydia. Or Mother or Father or any of the servants.

The bundle of branches shifts a bit until Mary has a gap to see through.

"Naturally," she sighs.

Mary steps to the side and drops the greenery on the closest empty table.

A fair number of holly leaves and pine needles cascade to the floor.

The needles make an interesting contrast to the lego brick of the surface and mechano braces that hold it up.

The unfortunately barefoot brunette frowns at the holly and needles.

"Happy Cubefall?"

"Merry Christmas," Mary replies, automatically.

................wait.

"What's Cubefall?"

And what is the reason for all of the blocks she sees scattered about?

"Robot holiday from a different planet than Earth."

Sorry Mary. The universe is making even less sense than usual for a few days.

And in Milliways, that takes some doing.

Mary is loosening her bonnet and cloak. It's rather warm in here compared to an English December.

"In that case, Happy Cubefall," she says.

"What does it celebrate, exactly? Cubefall?"

"You play with the toys, throw things you don't need or want anymore into the furnace and maybe choose a different body for a while."

"Choose? A different.....?"

What?

"Body?"

"Only if you want to. You should be able to get a pop up screen with your choices."

Mary just stares.

"Thank you, but I fear I must decline. I'm...really quite comfortable in my own body."

Never more so than at this very moment.

"I can't imagine who would be so reckless as to attempt such a thing."

"It's one of the best parts of the holiday and it's good practice for the less polite one. Like Halloween."

"But..."

Mary lowers her voice ominously.

"Imagine if you couldn't ever change back."

"I remember Halloween. Bar dressed me as something very strange. An astronaut, at least that's what someone told me."

"But those were just clothes. I could always change them."

"I won't say people haven't been change permanently but you have to choose to keep the new body deliberately and before the holiday ends."

"I'm going to be changing back. No one would recognize me at school like this."

And being a robot has a bunch of other potential issues, especially when your source of spares wouldn't be reliable.

Edited 2012-05-31 04:13 (UTC)

"Change back? You're usually someone else, then?"

Mary wonders if it's someone she knows. That might be embarrassing.

What is Milliways for if not for new and exciting embarrassments.

"I'm always me, this just isn't my regular body."

Somewhere around the fifth shape change and the body swap with a combat droid you have to think like that, or you'll go truly insane.

"Who is your regular body? If you don't mind my asking?"

It's Milliways. Mary's not sure she'd even want to try to hazard a guess.

"You don't want to try guessing?"

That's more than half the fun Mary.

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