letter to cam #17

[thisvorlunatic]

You would not believe the month I've had.

I really did mean to get back to you within a few weeks of my last message, but circumstances intervened. On the other hand, it seems to have worked out all right this way, because there's an Ash and Stars tour coming up and I'm not dead yet. How would you like to attend a concert in addition to raiding the comm nets?

Comments

[thisvorlunatic]

It'll do. Somebody makes a rude remark to Miles in passing as they approach the venue, but he ignores them.

And then they are at the concert. They have not-great-not-terrible seats.

[from_scratch]

Where they sit, and await music!

[thisvorlunatic]

They don't have to await too long.

Ash and Stars have, relatively speaking, a pretty low effects budget for these things. Nothing flashy, therefore, just a holo projected over the stage that turns it into a charred wasteland. Appropriate for the sort of song this band tends to play; they're not all melancholy all the time, but they're pretty close. And indeed, the first song they play is the one about drowning oneself in a lake.

It isn't until the ones about war that Miles starts to tear up a bit, however. (Perhaps he shouldn't have taken Cam to an Ash and Stars concert in particular. He does tend to get emotional over them.)

[from_scratch]

Cam doesn't cry, but he doesn't look about to mock the impulse either.

[thisvorlunatic]

That's good of him. Miles will just be over here having feelings about the Cetagandan occupation and his grandfather, then.

[from_scratch]

During certain parts of some songs Cam slightly mimes fretting a violin.

[thisvorlunatic]

Miles, at the first moment when he is not too absorbed in the music to notice, finds this very endearing.

[from_scratch]

Which Cam doesn't notice.

[thisvorlunatic]

Music continues. They play all of Miles's favourites. (Miles's favourites and the ones that make him cry a little are substantially overlapping sets. But he's also pretty fond of the cheerful one about adultery.)

[from_scratch]

Cam's favorites seem to be the ones he has been able to learn on the violin.

[thisvorlunatic]

Despite all the sad songs, at the end of the concert Miles is very happy.

[from_scratch]

"Lovely band," comments Cam under the applause.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Very," agrees Miles, applauding.

[from_scratch]

"Thank you."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Anytime."

[from_scratch]

"If your miscellaneous magic can send you to Hell for a visit I could take you to a production of Atriama," Cam remarks.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Sounds like fun."

Time to start clearing out, although Miles waits a bit to avoid the crush.

[from_scratch]

Suits Cam fine; jostling is no good for balance.

[thisvorlunatic]

Indeed.

And then they are making their way back to the lightflyer, and then they are in the air on their way back to the lake house.

[from_scratch]

Whee.

"I am not going to materialize my wings in this lightflyer because of the back of the seat, but I am going to do it as soon as we are back at your house. And my tail. And then magic?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"Yeah. Or - what was the thing you were supposed to remind me about - right, shopping for vehicle designs. If you would like to do that before the magic."

[from_scratch]

"Sure, why not, if I'm going to be alone with my thoughts for nine days I may as well have more thoughts to think."

[thisvorlunatic]

"I'm pretty sure that if nothing else, our shuttles run on nicer fuel than your shuttles. The trickiest part is going to be the combination of 'small', 'easy to fly', and 'amenable to the transition between atmosphere-and-gravity and neither of those things'."

[from_scratch]

"It doesn't have to be able to handle vacuum. For any distance long enough that I'd want it traveling while I slept I'd go with something more sophisticated than this jobbie, and making air around oneself is easy."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Yeah, but nobody actually makes vehicles specifically designed to fly with air and without gravity. And I think there are some passenger pods designed for maneuvering between ships and stations that work very well under their intended conditions but can't fly in atmosphere, although I don't remember offhand what their exact problem is."