(no subject)

[manofbusiness]

Childermass is at a table, a plate of unfussy food in front of him, pipe in one hand and a newspaper in the other.

It's a London newspaper, this time, and he's reading one particular article with focused interest.

Comments

[rhymes_with_boss]

"What are you smoking?"

That's a woman, in very plain and unflattering beige clothes, walking by with a book in hand, sniffing the smoke.

[manofbusiness]

"Tobacco", he says without looking up at her.

[rhymes_with_boss]

"That doesn't smell like ordinary cigs, or even the pipes dudes smoke," she muses. "Where do you get it?"

[manofbusiness]

"From a tobacconist." Obviously. "In York."

[rhymes_with_boss]

"In England?" she asks.

[manofbusiness]

He raises his eyes to her finally.

"Yes."

[rhymes_with_boss]

She thinks for a moment.

"What year?"

[manofbusiness]

"1807", he tells her. "In the spring."

[rhymes_with_boss]

"Oh," she says. "Tobacco was probably more natural back then."

[manofbusiness]

He raises his eyebrows at her.

"Does it not still grow on plants in your time?"

[rhymes_with_boss]

"Yes, but it's treated industrially with all sorts of chemicals," she says. "So it will always taste the same."

[manofbusiness]

"...whyever should you want it to always taste just the same?"

He has his favourite varieties, but exactly the same every time sounds dull.

[rhymes_with_boss]

"So people can imagine they need to buy specific brands because of taste," she says. "It's big business in my time, even though it's been on a decline for, oh, at least thirty years."

[manofbusiness]

"Is it still grown in the same places?"

[rhymes_with_boss]

"Hmm," she says. "Where was it grown in your time?"

[manofbusiness]

"In the New World, mostly. It's native to there and growing it makes poor soil better for other crops in the future."

[rhymes_with_boss]

"Yes, they grown it in Virginia, mostly, at least the American tobacco," she says. "So still the same place, but industrial preparation."

[manofbusiness]

"As with so much else, it seems."

[rhymes_with_boss]

"Almost everything," she says. "People pay a lot more to have things that were organically grown or made by hand."

[manofbusiness]

He shakes his head.

"I've heard little I like of your time."

[rhymes_with_boss]

"I don't really like it all that much, either," she says. "The world is seriously fucked up."

[manofbusiness]

He nods, glancing back at his paper.

"So it would seem."

[rhymes_with_boss]

"Isn't that a newspaper from your time?"

[manofbusiness]

"I see little reason to read newspapers not from my time", he says dryly.

[rhymes_with_boss]

"The world was already fucked up back then?"