|
|
Post by Pee-Dee on Mar 22, 2008 22:29:05 GMT -5
Pee-Dee coaxes the projector to read her Hawaii 5-0 DVD. It's being a bit finicky over the gleaming silver disc. But the protective case she keeps her DVDs in look like they would (and have) stop a bullet. Junkions tend to be very careful with their personal tee-vee discs. In fact, a good way to start a blood-feud is to deliberately break someone's discs. But the Emirate doesn't need to know that. Speaking of whom... She glances over her shoulder at where he's sitting on the table. The chairs had been cleared away from it, except for a few that let her take two steps from floor to table. He'd suggested the floor at first, but she wanted a seat where she could swing her legs. So on the table it was. Ah! There was the problem! Pee-Dee pulled out a small screwdriver and tightened a connection, then darted over to join Xaaron as an unforgettable theme began to play. |
|
|
|
Post by Emirate Xaaron on Mar 22, 2008 22:40:38 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron totally needs to know how to start a blood feud. That's useful information! He looks at the DVD-case with some interest, but he doesn't try to touch it or the DVDs.
The door is locked, the lights are down low, he chairs have been pushed off to the side so they don't obscure the view from the table - they are go, yes?
The music answers an affirmative. His head tilts to one side, and he's rather clearly concentrating, as if he was studying a battle-plan.
|
|
|
|
Post by Pee-Dee on Mar 25, 2008 13:03:16 GMT -5
Pee-Dee watches the show with bright optics and an intent, almost hungry expression. She keeps leaning more and more forward, somehow managing not to overbalance herself off the table.
|
|
|
|
Post by Emirate Xaaron on Mar 25, 2008 13:15:50 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron is honestly baffled by what he's watching. He knows what entertainment media is. He's watched it on Cybertron. He was always fond of those shows where scientists, engineers, and technicians would test hypotheses and mostly just blow things up for the amusement of all and the building challenge shows.
He can recognise this as a police show, a genre he never watched much, but it's a police show made by aliens for aliens. Perhaps his confusion is justified. He ties to stifle his questions, because Pee-Dee seems to be quite enraptured. He'll ask Rodimus Prime or Kup or something later - he doesn't want to look too stupid here.
Speaking of Rodimus Prime, he suggested presenting a female with a gift when watching tee-vee with her. Emirate Xaaron doesn't really understand the rationale, but when the 'credits' things are rolling, he withdraws his set of scales. They're plain and simple but very, very antique, and he holds them out to Pee-Dee, offering, "I'd like you to have these."
|
|
|
|
Post by Pee-Dee on Mar 26, 2008 1:42:26 GMT -5
"Wasn't that fun?" Pee-Dee asks as the credits roll. She turns towards the Emirate, smiling and trying to see from his expression what he thought of things.
The offering of the scales makes her blink rapidly and look at him in bafflement. But she takes the scales from him, careful to support the base. She turns it over carefully, inspecting it, examining it, trying to work out the reason why Xaaron thought she wanted a pair of scales.
Intentness fills her expression, edging out the confusion though there is still a shadow of that. Her fingers run down the chains supporting the weighing platforms, stroke the edges of the disks, run along the center bar.
The scales are not gold or brass. Too hard and heavy; she hefts one of the weighing disks in her palm, curls her fingers to dig fingertips in to see if she can leave a mark among the scratches and dings already in the metal.
It's a working set of scales. So whose hearts has the Emirate weighed on it?
"Are you keeping the feather then?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Emirate Xaaron on Mar 26, 2008 1:53:49 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron is mostly baffled. He answers honestly, "I'm still processing. I think I need to see more before I can make a definitive judgement. This is like nothing I've ever seen before, after all."
The scales are a improvement over his idea that maybe Pee-Dee wanted a harpoon. His vague chain of thought is that scales are a symbol of justice, but then, maybe they don't mean that to her. Has he committed a cultural faux pas?
His expression turns a bit sad, and he reminds gently, "I'm sorry, Pee-Dee. I don't know what you mean. A feather? That's a control surface like a flap or aileron but used by organics? I don't have anything like that. Perhaps one of the Wreckers snatched one off Divebomb..."
He shakes his head and brightens. Trying to turn his general cluelessness around, he comments, "But I'm trying to fix that. Is there more?" He gestures at her disc box.
|
|
|
|
Post by Pee-Dee on Mar 26, 2008 2:09:34 GMT -5
"In Egypt, the goddess Ma'at bore the feather of ma'at. And when a person died and went to the underworld, his heart and all his life was weighed against the feather. If it was found wanting, he was devoured. But if his heart weighed equal to the feather, then he could go on to paradise." Pee-Dee's voice takes on the cadence, but not the accent, of a British narrator. It seems someone among the Junkions watched the Discovery channel.
|
|
|
|
Post by Emirate Xaaron on Mar 26, 2008 2:15:47 GMT -5
"I've never believed in life after death for anyone but Primes and gods," Emirate Xaaron comments bluntly. "However, such beliefs give people comfort, and it's not as if I can prove anything, either way. People can believe what they want, as long their beliefs do not bring them into conflict with the rules of a just society." He shrugs.
People can be Devourist if they want, even. They're idiots. However, it's not heresy against Primus that Xaaron would nail them on but treason to destroy the state.
For all the strength of his own beliefs, he's rather lax about what other people think, mainly because his beliefs are not so much beliefs as facts based on outside knowledge to which other people do not have access. He can't blame them for never having got the story straight from Primus.
|
|
|
|
Post by Pee-Dee on Mar 26, 2008 2:23:11 GMT -5
If Junkions believe in life after death, they are close-mouthed on the subject. And so is Pee-Dee as she listens to him with slightly cocked head and red optics.
At the end of his statement, she nods sharply. "That is so."
The scales feel heavy in her lap, heavier still when she picks them up to offer them back to the Emirate. "I do not think I can have this."
|
|
|
|
Post by Emirate Xaaron on Mar 26, 2008 8:52:39 GMT -5
Disappointment flickers in the Emirate's optics, disappointment in himself, and he does not move to take the scales back. Instead, he inquires, "Where did I go wrong? What should I be giving you? They're a symbol of justice, aren't they?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Pee-Dee on Mar 26, 2008 11:47:21 GMT -5
"They are a symbol of justice," she agrees, "but not the part of justice that I administer."
Her charm flickers briefly as if to call attention to itself. "With scales, a person judges guilt and innocence. I am not allowed to do that without catching a person red-handed. Even then, I shouldn't."
|
|
|
|
Post by Emirate Xaaron on Mar 26, 2008 11:57:30 GMT -5
Pee-Dee seems to be, in many ways, very literal, almost as if expressions are more than just expressions. It seems to Emirate Xaaron that taking the scales would be more than a desk decoration to her - that they would have to agree with her exact self-definition.
Perhaps he is wrong, but so is how he gauges the situation. Such a way of thinking is alien to him, but she is alien.
Emirate Xaaron replies, "I see. I think that I... owe you one, then. Think about what you'd like, and if it is within reason and my abilities, you shall have it."
The 'within reason' part is important. Maybe he could, if the stars lined up right, behead Starscream and entrap his spirit in a magic lamp, but it isn't a reasonable request of him.
|
|
|
|
Post by Pee-Dee on Mar 26, 2008 21:04:29 GMT -5
Sometimes the line between the symbol and the thing signified is hair-thin to a Junkion. Their language is another race's language reshaped into metaphor.
Sometimes Pee-Dee is too serious. She took up the law because it fit her nature, and now her nature denies the idea of taking up scales because she already holds handcuffs, gavel, and axe.
"I will do that," she says quietly. "I- They are good scales, used scales. But I carry too many symbols already."
|
|
|
|
Post by Emirate Xaaron on Mar 26, 2008 21:31:20 GMT -5
This has suddenly gotten very awkward. Emirate Xaaron nods and hopes he won't regret that offer. He prompts gently, "Do you have any more of these 'episode' things?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Pee-Dee on Mar 26, 2008 21:58:21 GMT -5
Pee-Dee brightens considerably. "I've got the entire run of the series! We could be here for days!"
Which is totally a good thing.
|
|
