Get up real early in the morning, don't get up 'til the afternoon; son, I see the day is dawning?

[der_weevilkonig]

Sometime around eight in the morning, Owen Harper is in the Kashtta Tower infirmary with his back to the door, cleaning and re-dressing a set of fairly deep healing clawmarks on his forearms. He's managed to keep them out of sight so far by washing them at odd hours and wearing long-sleeve shirts, because he doesn't particularly want to have a

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[pplrunincircles]

Elizabeth is at the library, looking for interesting, off the wall book. Her granny thinks that she's doing research for school. It's true that she has a research report due in a couple weeks, but school doesn't concern her so much, anymore.

She has an armful of books when she notices someone reading through the newspaper. Well. Skimming the surface. Not even skimming. It's more like treading the printed waters.

Elizabeth stops next to him and says, "You know, sir, if you're looking for something interesting to read you're not so likely to find it in there. I mean, it's the newspaper for criminey! Hardly worth more than a skim of the headlines. Gotta reach out into the archives of this place to get some real material."

[the_vesmier]

Ves looks up, giving a thin, polite smile at the advice. "Thank you," he says. "I have read quite a number of the books here. I was especially intrigued by Hegel and Kierkegaard."

Xenopsychology is always so interesting.

He folds the newspaper back over its holder and glancing at her books long enough to ascertain that they are books. No longer. One doesn't read another's materials without permission. "What are you finding fascinating today?"

[pplrunincircles]

"Is that the German Star Trek? Captain Kierkegaard. Or how ever you say captain in German. Heil? No, that's for saluting. Gosh, that was kind of insensitive of me to bring that up first thing when I talk about Germans. You're not German are you?"

Elizabeth practically grins at him when he asks about her books. It makes her that he should want to continue their conversation. He seems all smart. She kind of lacks in the smarts. Elizabeth pulls out the books from her stack, placing them one by one on the table in front of him.

"Let's see. There's Knitting with Dog Hair. I don't have a dog, but hey you never know when you're going to need a rope and a dog's the only thing on hand. And this one is How to Defend Yourself Against Alien Abduction by Ann Druffel. I'm thinking that's a smart skill to have. And this last one here is Nuclear War: What's in it for you? Cause ya know, I always wondered. I'll probably just skim them or read a page of each at a time. I have trouble focusing."

((OOC: They are all real!))

[the_vesmier]

The Vesmier is not sure what to think of this. His first thought is that there's clearly something he's not understanding correctly, but... no, that was English. All the right phonemes in the mostly correct sequences.

"Hegel and Kierkegaard were philosophers," he says. "Kapitän is German for 'captain,' and I am not German. I am Gallifreyan." He frowns. "And are... xenoabductions a common hazard in this sector?"

That's the most he can even begin to respond to that.

[pplrunincircles]

Elizabeth stares at him, and then it hits her. She hadn't realized until this moment what he is.

"You're a wanderer," she says, and then sinks into a chair across from him. She smiles a little, exasperated. "Told you I have attention problems. I think I should be diagnosed. I didn't notice until now, but I think that's something angels should notice off the bat, huh, Kapitän?"

[the_vesmier]

"I am," the Vesmier confirms. Of course, that's not something he should go around advertising, and he knows that, but this person isn't reacting to him with surprise and hostility, and she doesn't... quite seem like the CLF type. And he was given to believe that they didn't recruit amongst the angels. ...he's not sure what to say about the attention problems, so he'll skip entirely over those. "I've been here for almost a year, now."

[pplrunincircles]

"Schnikeys. That is a while indeed, sir. How you liking our little Chicago then?" Elizabeth puts her elbow on the table, sitting with her chin in her hand. "You said you were Gallif- Gallifrey- that one word that I've never heard of before so I'm guessing this was kind of a change?"

[the_vesmier]

"Something of a change, yes," Ves understates. "Chicago is... far more chaotic than I was used to." Than he still is used to, honestly. Though he's learning. Slowly. Information, he can take in as quickly as any Time Lord. It's just... applying that, adapting to change. He's not built for change. He's built to last in a place that never changes.

[pplrunincircles]

"I think Chicago's more chaotic than most places. I wouldn't want to live some place more chaotic than this." Elizabeth can't think of anyone who would want to. "Though ya know something? I never really noticed the chaos until I got my wings. I even knew about angels beforehand, but it all went right over my head. Woosh."

She demonstrates by flying her hand over her head.

[the_vesmier]

Ves tilts his head a little at that. "I would imagine it hard to ignore," he says, though there's the ghost of half a frown tugging at the corners of his lips. Actually... there was quite a lot of note given to the fact that Romana had managed to wage war in Chicago without attracting much attention. And the great confusion over the CLF wasn't who they were or why they'd fixed on wanderers, but that they hadn't taken action sooner, and that when they had, it had been in a relatively quiet time. ...there's something odd about the Rift and all things Rift-related. "...one almost wonders if there's some controlling influence. Something which prevents most people from considering the chaos around them."

This is the best conversation to have with Elizabeth, Ves. Really. I bet she's interested in the nuances of theoretical perception filters.

[pplrunincircles]

"Yeah, you'd think so, huh? But I live with my Gran and she's still kind of oblivious. She knows about me being an angel. The wings and transformation makes it hard for her to ignore that, but about Chicago being crazier than any other city? Gran didn't start getting that until around the time CLF was making headlines."

It is, also, around the time that Flagg was making headlines, but the narration digresses.

Elizabeth will be interested as long as her attention lasts. It's a flighty beast at best.

"Something? Like a Rift influenced type something? Cause it's not like it's normal for people to ignore ya know... everything else that goes down here and make up lame-o excuses for them, instead of getting to the bottom of it."

[the_vesmier]

"It isn't normal, no," the Vesmier agrees. "Even if they had no way of solving it, people should at least be aware of the issue. Which suggests that something acts to keep people unaware. It would not," Ves says, folding his hands, "be the strangest aspect of this world - speaking as a visitor, of course."

Far be it for Ves to just call someone's homeworld strange. At least, to their face. He's far more polite than that.

[pplrunincircles]

"Is there anyway to figure out what it is?" Elizabeth frowns, and then shake her head. "Then again with the CLF and how they're reacting now that they know. Maybe it's best that everyone is oblivious. What do you think, Kapitän?"

She grins and sits up in her seat.

"I know what you mean. This city is freaky-deaky. It's like it took a turn off the sanity tracks and everyone got off at Kookooville!" Elizabeth gestures with a finger in a circle next to her forehead. It represents teh crazy.

[the_vesmier]

"I know of a few who might investigate it," Ves says. "For myself, I can only speculate." Or... sit there and try to sense the psychic strangeness. Which doesn't work so well, if you're trying to examine a structure which you're inside.

And then she goes off on the freaky-deaky train, and Ves... doesn't know how to respond to that. Though the corner of his mouth does quirk up, just a little, in amusement. Even the children he's met so far haven't been quite like this - it's unusual. More than unusual.

"I have to ask," he says, "have you met the Doctor?" Then, recalling the difficulty which always comes of saying that name; "A man who calls himself 'the Doctor'. Not a literal member of the medical profession." He's the last person who piñata'd a metaphor like that.

[pplrunincircles]

"So you're not the detective type? You're more the... sit back and hypothesize type? Think, but not do? That is one way to be. I guess we all have our roles to play. If everyone was playing detective then there would be some kind of imbalance." Elizabeth presses her lips together and sighs. "I have... no idea what I'm saying. I just felt the need to say words."

Elizabeth opens her mouth to say that she has met plenty of doctors over her time. By plenty of, she means the one that she has been going to since she was little, but that is more than enough for her. And then he's changing it up a bit.

"Nope! Never heard of the guy. Why? Who is he? And why does he call himself the Doctor if he hasn't got that medical degree under his boot? I bet he puts PhD-ers in a tizzy."