milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Ramses is in a bar, remarkably enough.

He's sitting in a booth, reading up on some of his father's earlier work. He had been careful to ask for the year specifically, to avoid getting hints as to what the future might hold. Assuming he'll be able to get back to his future, at some point.

He may also be hiding from certain female members of his family.

Members, plural. It's only a matter of time, he suspects, before everyone here will fear the parasol as well.

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Ever get that feeling on the back of your neck, when someone's reading over your shoulder?

Well, Laini's balanced over the top of the back of the booth, reading over the top of Ramses' head, rather.

He lives with a household of cats. He gets that feeling all the time. Naturally, he assumes it is Horus reading over his shoulder today. He turns to swat the nasty cat away...
"Oh. Pardon me." He says politely to the... woman? Hrm. Well. They did say that people came from everywhere...

Laini's not that graceful under the best of times. Balanced on the back of a booth, and trying to duck a swat isn't the best of times. She crashes headfirst onto the seat next to Ramses, but manages to scramble up with an "I'm fine!" and sheepish grin.

"Oh, quite alright. I was about to ask if you could flip back to the notes refered to on page sixty four, anyways."

Silently he offers the text to the strange woman. It seems that even here, he cannot escape 'unique', inquisitve women.

She sits cross-legged on the bench, tail wrapped around her legs, and grins at Ramses' as she takes the book. Ears perk as Laini flips to page sixty four, and she trails a finger down the page to the referenced notes.

"Ah. Theorized it was aligned with some of the constellations in the night sky. Got it." Beaming, she hands the book back to him. "Thank you! I haven't worked on any of the portals and gates that had an exit or two to Egypt- or at least, as of yet. Still interesting to see what's on the other side of things."

"..." If he was still in Luxor, he'd wonder if this woman was suffering from delusions. It wouldn't be the first time he had met such a woman. However, the tail and the ears, nevermind the local, cause him to withhold judgement.
"You're welcome." A pause, as he considers. "Allow me to introdce m'self. I'm Ramses Emerson, how do you do?" He offers the woman his hand.

Grinning, she shakes his hand. "I'm Laini, nice t'meet you! Your name fits your reading matter quite well- any connection on that, or just a coincidence?" She tilts her head, reguarding him.

"A family nickname. Using my given name tends to result in confusion with my father's brother." He's never quite appreciated the usefulness of family names. He supposes it could have been worse.

"Well, its certainly a cool nickname, as they go. Named after a king and all that?" Her tail twitches as she grins. "Better than being named after your great-aunt's mother-in-law's neighbor's niece."

"Yes, indeed." A faint smile, in that the corners of his mouth might be ever-so-slightly turned up. If she's ever seen a statue of his namesake, she might see a resemblance.

She giggles, sitting back. "Should put a statue of you, up. I know a couple of djins who were around at that time, might be able to find some stone carvers. Do it all exact to the meathods of the time period, and... put it on earth somewhere in the Amazon, or in Mexico by their pyramids. Toss 'em all for a loop. Would be great fun. Whaddya say?"

Ramses eyes her with a faint air of absolute horror. Not only does the archeolgist in him cringe, but the knowledge that if this plan ever got to his father...
"Please. Don't." Emerson would rave and rant for weeks. And it would only stop until he found something more interesting and close to home to roar about. He isn't called 'Father of Curses' for nothing.

Her ears droop dejectedly. Spoilsport.

"... Not even on mars? It would be ages before any humans found them, I'm sure."

This he has to ponder for a while.

It wouldn't be on Earth. No hope of his father finding out, thank God for small mercies. And by the time anyone went to Mars (the thought!), he'd be long gone as well.
"If it pleases you." He wonders if, technically, it'd even be possible to stop her if she got the idea fixed in her head. Probably not.

Ramses is So Right. Good Luck getting her to forget this one, unless she happens upon a new, even better one. Would he like to see what she'd consider a better idea than an Egyptian style carved statue of him, set up on Mars?

.... I thought so.

Laini beams at Ramses. "Wonderful! Are you free for sittings, then?"

Succinctly:
"No."

Well. There's that then. Ramses does not do sittings. Ramses would rather trek across the Sahara Desert than do sittings. Emphatically so.

Laini pouts. With drooping ears and sad, sad eyes.

Ramses is rather impervious to sad looks from women he does not know. He gets those sort of looks entirely too often. Usually they are also attempting to get something out of him.
"You will just have to use your imagination."

Her ears perk at that. Ramses might just be doomed.

"Oh, I could do that. Oh yes." Laini grins, and pulls out a palm pilot looking device and starts making notes on it.

Ramses attempts to ignore the device as well.

He fails. It is quite facinating. Especially to him, when in his time computers weren't even really conceived yet.
"What is that, if you don't mind my asking?"

With a conspiratory grin, Laini leans over so he can see the screen. "A magi-tech notebook. Make notes, record things, so on. A bit like a palm pilot, but how it works is different. Quiet so."

"More magic." It seems that many people cannot seem to get anything done without magic. He is beginning to consider his world's lack of magic a benefit, rather than a drawback.

"Somewhat, yes. If you think electricity is magic, up all in computers and the sort. This here... well, it runs on magic, but that's a power source, and how the programming is done. After that, though?" She puts it in Ramses' hands.

"Anyone can use it. Here. Let me change the language to english-" She pokes at the screen, and viola!

"And then you just hit the buttons to type."

He prods the buttons gingerly, looking rather surprised when letters appear on the screen.

He dosn't even want to begin to contemplate what a horror his mother would be with one of these things. The lists she could make alone!

"Very interesting."

"Its useful." Laini nods. "Like any other sort of gadget or gizmo. ... well, its probably more useful than other gadgets I keep around." She laughs quietly, shaking her head.

"I keep a lot of info on there. A lot of us got sent out on field work, so I put my notes and findings on there, til I could get back and D-L the info to the main computers in HQ."

He gives her a very blank, very polite stare. It is the stare of a man who did not understand most of that explanation. He wonders, distantly, if this is how people feel when he goes into detail about the language of ancient Egyptians.
"Really?"

Laini looks at Ramses, and giggles sheepishly. "Um. I stored all my notes there, until I could hand them over back at Headquarters. Notes, maps, drawings and all, but this is lighter wieght than having to carry around all that paper, or papyrus, or stone tablets."

He is tempted to offer some wry comment on how yes, those stone tablets sure can get bulky, and how pleased he is that technology has improved... but then he remembers that in his room back home? Most of his shelves are filled with tablets he is working on translating, so it wouldn't really be the joke he means it to be.
"I see. Useful, then."

"Hm. Very." Laini grins at him, and picks up the palm pilot (for lack of a better name). There's a flashing light on it, she taps that button to stop it.

"And one of the other handy-dandy things this does, is let me know when they want me back at work." She rolls her eyes. "The drawbacks of modern technology, the world gets smaller and smaller at times. I gotta get back, we're dealing with a fun mini-crisis."

"Don't let me detain you then." The amused almost-smile is back. He thinks he prefers a world free of such technology, where you can disappear and, if you want, no one can find you.
He offers a polite half-bow from where he sits - difficult, but definitely doable.

Laini just grins, at that. "Oh, I'll be back. Count on it."

She tucks the palmpilot into its holder on her utility belt, and flounces (which is possible to do with a tail, say thankya) off.

Ramses stares after her, feeling free to do so now that she's headed away.

And sneezes.

Must be the fur.

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