video | un: undertaker | private

[somakemelaugh]

[He has long figured out how to make network posts private to who he wants, thankfully. Otherwise, this might be a little interesting to have to explain to his roommate later on tonight. That aside, he appears with his usual smile in place, hair hiding everything else, giving nothing away, though for all of his manner he may as well be talking about the weather.]

Doctor Crusher. I hope you're doing well. I was wondering if you might have a moment to speak with me. There are a few things I've had a mind to research, but I find myself needing assistance with them, if you don't mind.

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video; private

[dancingmd]

[She, on the other hand, isn't smiling, but she is maintaining a pleasant sort of professionalism, assuming that it's likely he's coming to her with medical questions.]

Of course. What can I help you with?

[somakemelaugh]

[If she's concerned about him offending her again, no worries here. This isn't a social call; he has genuine professional intent.]

I'm sure you've noticed the health problems afflicting a mutual acquaintance of ours. Seeing as how he lives with me, I thought I should catch myself up on the advances made for it in this day and age. For all I understand, there is no cure for his condition, is there?

[dancingmd]

Not... here, no. We have the ability at home but I don't have access to the right equipment or medicine here. Even so, we can definitely get it under better control and lessen the severity of his attacks.

[somakemelaugh]

That's quite a shame, no cure for it here, but it's certainly better than threat of his death at any given moment. I'll admit, it's only too fascinating to me, the advances that humans have been able to make in so short a time. Can I assume that you're also from around the year 2010 or so? Seems most of the people I've known here are in from about that time.

[dancingmd]

Ah... no, I'm from the 24th century, actually!

[somakemelaugh]

Well then, that's much farther in the future than anyone I've known yet. Asthma must have been trickier than I thought if it took that long to cure. I've a mind to ask you what life is like in your day and age, but I wonder if you'd be obliged to tell me.

[dancingmd]

Normally, no I wouldn't - we have rules about that kind of thing. But given that it seems people don't remember Riverview if they go home and that I doubt we're from the same timeline, I don't see much of a conflict.

[somakemelaugh]

So they tell us. I don't know if I believe it, but we'll see one way or another, or we'll never leave and never know. But please, go on. What's the far future like? [Inquiring minds want to know.]

[dancingmd]

[She laughs softly.] I think you might need to get a little more specific than that. What in particular are you curious about?

[somakemelaugh]

[Well, whaddya know? There's a laugh.] I suppose it is a bit vague. Fair, then. What are your homes like? On average.

[dancingmd]

Hmm. Well... I live on a starship, but that's not exactly typical for your average Federation citizen, just for members of Starfleet. As for homes planetside...it really varies by culture. For example, I grew up in a home that probably you and Ciel would be familiar with, as our colony was modeled after eighteenth and nineteenth century Scottish architecture. And my friend grew up on a winery in France that's been there hundreds of years. But then other people live in modern apartment buildings that tend to be very... minimalist, I suppose is the best way to describe it. There isn't much emphasis put on material goods any more.

And of course, this is just the Human homes I'm describing. Other species have different needs and different histories with their homes.

[somakemelaugh]

[There's a lot of this that seems like pure fancy to him, words he doesn't quite understand through personal experience but can grasp in concept, but he'll take her word lightly for it. He's not from her world, so how can he say what is or isn't?]

What an odd future it sounds like, to live in a place like what I might have called home and then whatever your starship must be like at the same time. Do animals have their own homes now, like in zoos? You did mention other species.

[dancingmd]

[Tilting her head, she smiles knowingly.] Are you saying you saying you know no one who lives in a centuries old home? Surely a family of Ciel's status has a fine old home?

[Then she shakes her head, in response to his other question.]

I meant alien species. Other sapient beings.

[somakemelaugh]

[Oh ho? A smile from her? At him? That's new.] Of course he does. His family is quite wealthy and has been in the same manor for generations. [At least they were until the fire. The place hasn't felt quite right since, though he's only been there once or twice, uninvited.] I only meant I found it interesting that people live like they do in your world, as I did in my own time and in something you call a starship. Sounds like day and night at the same time.

[Her explanation draws his attention even further though. This is an entirely new concept for him.] Aliens? As in not like dogs and cats and horses, but other creatures? From different countries, perhaps, or something else? [He knew they were strange in North America and in India but goodness.]

[dancingmd]

Ah, no... from other planets.

[She forgot about the Victorian English viewpoint about the rest of the world.]

[somakemelaugh]

[Oh.] Other planets. How very interesting. You've seen these other planets, have you, or just the people who come from them?

[dancingmd]

I've been to many of them! I didn't even grow up on Earth myself, you know.

[somakemelaugh]

Well, then. And to think, we only ever see the stars from the ground looking up and imagine what it's like to be out there in my day and age. [He himself hasn't even seen the stars outside of picture books in a few hundred years, but oh well.]

[dancingmd]

If you hadn't imagine it, we would have never gotten there.

[somakemelaugh]

[There's a small shrug from him. He knows that well enough from his own experiments, but now that's gone for the time being.] Imagination gets us nowhere and everywhere. I like my feet on the ground as well as the next bloke, but there's enough people out there looking up that one of them might have wondered how to get up among it all.

[dancingmd]

Just give it another 80 years or so.

[Prime Directive, what Prime Directive?]

[somakemelaugh]

Will if I'm around that long. Maybe I'll see something like what we've got here. What do you think? Big tall buildings, taller than the ones we have now, and that's everything they have around us? In the middle of England?

[He tilts his head, wide grin.] I'd like to see that. Might like to see your world too, just for kicks.

[dancingmd]

I know London is like that, at least - but they keep a good deal of countryside still open too!

[somakemelaugh]

All good and well. I can't imagine a world covered in tall buildings and nothing green. That'd be something terrible and I think I'd rather miss that feeling of standing on the edge of something so vast and endless.

[dancingmd]

Don't worry, there is plenty of green in the world. We learned from that mistake.

[somakemelaugh]

Very good. ["Learned from that mistake" sounded quite ominous. Just how far had people cut into the very things that sustained them anyway? Maybe a question for a different time.] Looks like they learned that much here as well, at least about the green. Is that what things are like on your ship, too? Green everywhere and buildings in along with it?

[dancingmd]

Not quite...we have extensive greenhouses and gardens on board, and most people keep house plants in their quarters, but it's stil mostly...artificial, so to speak.

[somakemelaugh]

Artificial? [He makes a brief face at that.] Not like those terrible plastic things they call flowers, I hope? They'll last longer, sure, but they smell awful. Pack enough of them into a room and it looks lovely enough, but it's like breathing in old paint.

[dancingmd]

[She chuckles and shakes her head.] No, no all the plants are living. I just mean that the ship itself is by its nature mostly manmade.

[somakemelaugh]

[That she's tolerating him is a surprise on his own. That she's carrying it on this long? He wants to see how far this will go.] Oh, of that I have no doubt. Nothing named that ever came out of the ground on its own exactly as it is, but I am glad to hear that you do keep living plants around. Is that what you keep in your own room on this ship? Living plants? Forgive my curiosity, but I've a great deal of it where you and your world is concerned.

[dancingmd]

[Curiosity about her world is one thing, but if he gets too personal...well, her patience will wear thin.]

I do... specifically orchids.

[somakemelaugh]

[Oh, he won't bother with it. He's just interested in her because of her affiliation with his Earl and her profession.]

Ah, yes. Can't have everything green, but I bet it improves the atmosphere. Doctor's life can't all be flowers and sunshine.

[dancingmd]

It's healthier for you too, to have plants in the house.

[somakemelaugh]

[That was a new take on things he hadn't considered.]

Does it matter the species of plant? I'd only ever considered them as decoration and strictly that, something to care for on idle whims.

[dancingmd]

[Right. She's not sure if in his era they'd realized yet that trees helped clean the air.]

Apologies if I tell you anything you might already know - I'm hazy on the science of the nineteenth century - but trees and other plants help convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, which is much better for us to breathe. And simply on a psychological level, humans are a part of nature, so we like having green things around in our homes.

[somakemelaugh]

[Not news to him, but still! How fascinating, that future.]

Ah, that. We knew about photosynthesis. No worries on that. I suppose it just never occurred to me to use a plant as a decoration. [Really, what was he going to do with them? Maybe grow small herbs and dry them for a special meal, but he had no real use for them otherwise.] I believe the science behind it, but I could see brought about by a little bit of green and leaf making things easier.

[dancingmd]

Especially when you're in space!