milliways_bar | (no subject)

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She comes in through the lake door, dressed for riding and with her hair in a long braid down her back... and marsh violets woven into the braid.

As Susan Delgado goes to the bar, it's apparent that soon there will be hot chocolate, as well. Sometimes, it's the little things that bring contentment, say true.

[OOC for Millichannel: Susan and Anthy discuss how to braid hair, which Anthy does not know and which Susan offers to help with; Tony Almeida and Susan are well-met and talk about different worlds, languages, terrorism, military strategy, and oh yes, gunslingers; Roland and Susan discuss Tim's death, Pat Delgado's visit, Joanie, and then Joe's St. Christopher's medal, which brings woe; and then later on, Ace bounces by and shares hugs and the joyful news of Tim's return to the living, for great yay.]

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Her glance is slightly wry as she nods to an electric lamp.

"Sai Tony, although I'd heard of spark-lights before coming here, I'd never seen one, do'ee ken? My world has moved on."

"You mean they don't use electricity anymore?"

"There were still a few working spark-lights in Gilead, I was told, but none in Hambry for two generations before I died," she says simply.

"Hmm. So they stopped working, then? Interesting. You kno why?"

"Time is a face on the water, sai, do'ee ken? And it moves on--"

(as did I as did we)

"-- and the world has moved on as well. Things alter; it grows strange."

"What...year is it, where you come from?"

He's thinking it doesn't really matter. Her universe is not his universe.

Susan shrugs helplessly, and looks a little distressed.

"I'm not certain I could tell ye."

He grins a little uncomfortably. "It's okay. I don't think it would apply to my universe, anyway."

He shrugs. "Your world sounds...complicated."

"Likely not-- yer world sounds very different indeed, say true."

She laughs, a little.

"But I'd have said yer world was the more complicated, mayhap."

"Depends on how you'd define 'complicated.' I'd say it's more dangerous than anything else--although, yeah, it's complicated."

"Dangerous?"

"Have you ever heard of terrorism before, Susan?"

Susan shakes her head, silently.

"When I say my world is dangerous, that's what I mean. We've had wars--terrible wars--in our world before, but this...it's a new kind of war.

"Terrorism...I guess if you wanna go for textbook definitions it's any politically motivated attack against a civilian target. They hit military targets, too, but it's best known, and feared, for its civilian attacks. I used to work for a government agency called the Counterterrorist Unit that was formed to stop and investigate terrorist attacks in the United States."

He pauses. "Do you follow me?"

Not entirely, but she's trying. And Susan is frowning, oh aye.

"Ye -- do'ee mean as if to attack something that isn't an enemy, but might be used by one, mayhap? Is that it?"

"And ye work for a group that tries to stop such?"

"Hmm...not neccessarily. I mean attacking things that have nothing to do with military force, like parks or bridges. Something like that."

He nods at the last question.

She thinks she understands, but best to be certain, mayhap especially in this and right now.

"And when ye say 'military'-- ye mean an army, aye? Soldiers and forces for battles and the like?"

He nods.

She's very quiet for a minute, and then asks,

"Would ye call someone a terrorist who -- who attacked, who helped to destroy -- who did that to something that wasn't of soldiering precisely, but could have been used by such in war?"

"Depends on what you're talking about. It's really tricky, especially when you're in war, to define what's terrorism and what's a strategic military attack."

For some reason, that seems almost to reassure her, enough so that she says,

"It were a refinery, do'ee ken? The oil-- it were to be used in the weapons of the Old People, in the war against the Affiliation."

Gray eyes are clear and direct as they meet his.

"They had to be stopped, or it would have been slaughter."

And it hadn't been enough, at the end, but mayhap some time had been bought.

"As long as it wasn't targeted against civilians or the econmy...I can't see how that could be defined as terrorism."

"It weren't." She sounds certain of this.

"Hmm. Well, that sounds like a routine military strike. Happens a lot during war--one side tries to hurt the arsenal of the enemy..."

"Mayhap routine to ye -- I weren't used to it," she says a little ruefully.

"But ye say true as to how it happened."