Clio
Cadet
Posts: 96
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Post by Clio on Feb 26, 2012 21:38:41 GMT -5
Month 7, Week 1, Day 6. A bookstore in Detroit. Open.
"...And as she stared down at him, his blood spilling out from where her spear pierced his flesh, staining the golden sand at her feet, she wondered for a moment if she should regret. But why ever would a woman feel sorry for slaying a savage? Why ever would she regret killing a man?"
The short rotund woman standing at the podium closes the novel she's reading from - From the Golden Realm (Book One of the Femax Trilogy) - to a round of applause from her gathered audience. Science fiction author Clio Gabriel is celebrating the release of her newest novel (Book Two of the Femax Trilogy: To The Wastelands) with a book-reading and signing.
She's not the most well-known of authors, but she does have a decently sized loyal fanbase, and two of the gathered people have even chosen to dress up as warrior women of Femax for the even - Clio thinks the costumes are highly inaccurate, but perhaps her descriptions weren't detailed enough.
Adjusted her glasses, she smiles at her audience and asks, "Now, are there any questions?"
A woman sits at the back of the crowd - space has been cleared in the book store for several rows of seats - smirking with pride as her dear author reads to her fans. Calliope Patra is rather the opposite of her friend and housemate; tall, dark, and shapely.
Such good partners they make, Calliope thinks. Clio has so very many ideas dancing around in her head, but it's only with Calliope's help that she gains the creative spark to turn those ideas into successful prose.
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Post by Sunstreaker on Feb 26, 2012 21:44:16 GMT -5
A pair of siblings sit in the middle of the audience, the woman flipping idly through From the Golden Realm while the man holds one of Ms. Gabriel's previous trilogies.
Hunter raises his hand. "You mentioned the 'Endless Civil War' in both this book and two of your previous trilogies as something happening elsewhere in space. Are you ever going to write about that?"
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Post by Victoria Raines on Feb 27, 2012 12:00:46 GMT -5
Toward the back of the crowd sits a striking, pale woman with dark purple-black hair and violet eyes. Her hair is done up in a loose chignon, and she is dressed in what amounts to casual for her: dark denim jeans cut just like a suit pant, and a dove gray suit coat over a fitted, darker gray blouse. A pair of designer reading glasses sit on the bridge of her nose.
Is it a risk to be out so publicly, when the Autobots know who she is, and there are certainly members of the Decepticons who would wish her dead? Certainly. But Victoria will not hide. To do so would be to admit weakness.
Besides, this author has captured Victoria's imagination- and her attention.
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Tarantulas
Minor
The not-so-friendly neighborhood spider-man
Posts: 398
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Post by Tarantulas on Feb 27, 2012 20:55:03 GMT -5
There's a man leaning over the customer service counter, uncomfortably close to the clerk. He's clearly either from another culture where personal spaces are smaller, or just doesn't care. He's wearing a blue polo shirt and corduroy pants. His hair is unkempt, and his appearance generally falls into the category of 'disheveled.'
"Do you have the book I ordered?" he asks. "You don't need to keep coming back every day, sir. You'll be automatically notified by e-mail as soon as it arrives," the clerk responds, leaning backward and out of the range of his breath.
"Oh very well," the man says, disappointed. "Just make sure I'm informed immediately!" he calls over his shoulder as he makes his way toward the door. He stops to look at the gathering around the book signing, eyeing the assembled people carefully. The way a butcher eyes a herd of cows.
He picks up a copy of To The Wastelands from a stack on the table and reads the dust jacket, thumbing through it.
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Clio
Cadet
Posts: 96
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Post by Clio on Feb 27, 2012 21:00:00 GMT -5
"It is a possibility," Clio answers. "However, I am subject to the whims of my muse-" Her eyes flicker for a moment to where Calliope sits in the back, before refocusing on Hunter. "Perhaps one day the Observer will turn introspective and take a look at her own people, but for now she continues to look outward at the other peoples of the universe."
The Observer is the only character that appears in all of Clio's novels, a seemingly ancient being who prefaces and closes each book with a first person narrative that introduces each planet and species and makes comparisons between the various civilizations in her universe, including her own, as well as clarifying which parts of each story were historically accurate, and which parts took liberty for the sake of an engaging narrative. It is in these prologues and epilogues that most mentions of the Endless Civil War are made.
Yes, Clio Gabriel writes her science fiction novels like historical fiction. Yes, she does think of her Observer character as a real person who provides her with true information about alien cultures. She's said as much in interviews in the past.
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Post by Sunstreaker on Feb 28, 2012 9:15:20 GMT -5
"Thank you," Hunter says, letting other fans take over the questioning. There's a barely-contained aura of excitement around him, which draws an elbow nudge from Summer.
What is it? she demands irritably. What did you drag me out here for?
Hunter shifts to press fingertips against her knee; information is faster and easier to exchange when they're skin-to-skin for some reason. Suddenly she knows everything he knows about Ms. Gabriel's books, about the Observer, about the Endless Civil War-
Cybertron!
Summer sits bolt upright, staring up at Ms. Gabriel. She's-
Probably.
One of us?
Can you imagine one of them studying organics like the Observer does?
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Post by Victoria Raines on Feb 28, 2012 22:48:33 GMT -5
Victoria raises a hand- well, more accurately she moves the pen in her hand so as to call attention to herself.
"In regards to the Observer, Ms. Gabriel, I must confess to the same curiosity as many of your following. It is a rather singular thing, to be so focused on the beings of other worlds and yet avoid all but the barest mention of ones own."
"As you have asserted previously that you feel the Observer is a real entity speaking through you, why do you think she avoids her own people's history? Shame, perhaps, over the damage such a conflict as the Endless Civil War must have wrought upon the universe? Or is she a pariah cast out from them?"
"Or," Victoria smiles slightly, "Is she perhaps lost, and waiting to be found, these stories of yours so many breadcrumbs to follow?"
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Tarantulas
Minor
The not-so-friendly neighborhood spider-man
Posts: 398
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Post by Tarantulas on Mar 3, 2012 16:00:16 GMT -5
He wishes he could read faster. Ink on paper such an inefficient method of data storage. His eyes flick upwards, peeking over the book at Victoria and Clio in turn. He doesn't recognize the author, though her name is tantalizing. The other woman . . .
He's a stockbroker. He knows who she is. She's the head of Kao-Nic Tech, and what an interesting name for a company that is.
The man places the book back down on the stack and takes a seat near the rear of the audience.
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Clio
Cadet
Posts: 96
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Post by Clio on Mar 3, 2012 18:20:48 GMT -5
Pushing her thick, square glasses up her nose, Clio observes Victoria thoughtfully. "It is rather simpler than that, dear reader. The Observer is an academic, a scientist, and the people of other worlds are her area of study.
"She wishes to learn about the unfamiliar. To observe and categorize that which is unknown to her. And then perhaps once she has learned enough, she can take her observations and look upon her own people as if they, too, are strangers."
Clio pauses for a moment, tapping her chin as the first pieces of a new cultural study filter into her mind. "She is admittedly curious as to what it is that has caused her race to war on for ages upon ages, while others can find and maintain peace for many a generation. One can hypothesize reasons, of course, but..."
She trails off, a bit distracted. Yes, yes. Her next trilogy shall be about the people of Nebulos...
Calliope glances to her side as the disheveled man sits near by, nose wrinkling slightly. Honestly, people who don't at least try to look presentable in public!
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Post by Sunstreaker on Mar 4, 2012 13:15:33 GMT -5
Summer does not raise hands. Raising hands is for wusses. She just starts talking before anyone else in the audience does. "Wouldn't the other side be strange enough for the Observer? Is he even on a side?"
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Post by Victoria Raines on Mar 4, 2012 13:28:35 GMT -5
"Spoken like a scientist," Victoria acknowledges, settling back in her seat. "Perhaps her people have reached a point where they fight because they always have. Peace- while outwardly something to be wished for, is easily tossed aside because emotion overrules logic."
Victoria crosses one long leg over the other and settles back into her seat. She seems rather pleased over all with the answers she received from the author.
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Tarantulas
Minor
The not-so-friendly neighborhood spider-man
Posts: 398
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Post by Tarantulas on Mar 4, 2012 19:23:57 GMT -5
Terrence doesn't notice Calliope noticing him. He's too busy watching Victoria. He suspects he may not be the only ex-Transformer in the room right now. He also doesn't much care, or at least doesn't care for the reasons one might suspect.
He's more worried about how much Victoria weighs. He leans forward intently, seemingly rapt with attention, hanging on Clio's every word.
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Clio
Cadet
Posts: 96
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Post by Clio on Mar 4, 2012 19:58:50 GMT -5
"Perhaps," Clio says, nodding at Victoria. She feels like she could debate for hours about the Observer's theories about her people, but now is not the time or place for it. She has another question to answer from her readers, after all.
"The sides of an intraspecies war are rarely truly strangers to each other. They may have differences in philosophy or experiences or build, but in the end they all come from the same source." She dips her head slightly. "The Observer has her side, but she understands it about as well as she does the other side."
The Observer may be ungendered in the novels, but Clio finds she takes it a little personally when people misgender her character.
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Post by Sunstreaker on Mar 11, 2012 19:36:14 GMT -5
Summer scowls at the author's answer, then cranes her head to look around behind her to see who that other woman asking questions is.
Hunter facepalms. Subtle, you are not.
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Post by Victoria Raines on Mar 12, 2012 19:27:26 GMT -5
Yes. The girl is certainly not subtle at all. Victoria gives Summer a cool, appraising look. There is something else, the barest hint of amusement in her violet eyes, too, and a challenge. Victoria is connecting dots. Are you?
"Speaking of emotion overruling logic," Victoria says, holding up her pen again until she is acknowledged, "Femax is a matriarchy, one held as such by maintaining the belief that males are the weaker, inferior sex. Similarly, the female population of this planet must still fight the patriarchal leanings of our society, though in most things we have come beyond the state of slavery to man."
"We see that equality and unity have not caused the collapse of all reality. That in fact two beings or groups of being who are popularly considered opposites and/or incompatible might create a greater good when they step back from whatever emotional unease each causes in the other and instead focus their energies in tandem for the good of all."
Victoria smiles slightly, "May we look forward to such a theme being explored in coming volumes, or have you something else in mind?"
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