estoria | [Open] Say cheese?

Who: Kevin Cecil and you
When: 1/6, 1/7
Where: CERES Gardens
What: Flowers! Pictures! Discomfiture!
Rating/Warning: none

[A florist! Kevin is a florist! He has never been a florist before, which is saying a lot considering he has been around for quite a bit. It is all right, though. He is nothing but thorough, and if he is going to sell this world's flowers, he might as well learn everything about them. With some trepidation and a few involuntary detours - oh dear, was that a neighborhood of ill repute? - he manages his way into the most bizarre railway system. Honestly, the entire thing is underground and as claustrophobic as any coal mine. Is that a distant and more forbidding relative of London's horror? Why anyone would ever consider that a good idea is quite beyond him. But thank goodness his efforts are amply rewarded when he emerges from the depths of earth to the most luxuriant sights and sounds of Ceres Gardens. Ahh, that was exactly what he had been praying for!

This place is very different from the Master and Mistress' peaceful Victorian garden, and not quite as wild as Eden itself. Although he is fully capable of recognizing some of the flora, the hard truth is that another equally large number of species baffle him. There is some spot of trouble with a grumpy groundkeeper when he attempts to collect some samples for entirely taxonomic purposes, but it all ends well after a young lady - she couldn't be over eighty - invites him to sit by her side, and proceeds to tell him everything about her six grandchildren and four house cats. By the end of their conversation, Kevin has learned a great deal about house cats, but also about how to use his CereVice to take daguerreotypes of cats or whatever catches his fancy.

Instantaneous pigmented daguerrotypes, no less. My, what will people invent next?

After saying goodbye to the nice lady, he resumes his stroll and starts to take photographs of all the flowers. Sadly, he lacks both the technique and etiquette to do that properly, so if you were to turn around, you might find yourself face to face with a tall stranger wearing a very intent expression and taking pictures of you.

Though what he is aiming at is that cherry tree just behind you, really.]

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[He has friends! Or rather, he has servants who despise him and fellow noblemen who probably sighed in relief and threw a party when he finally died. No more annoying Glens at their balls drinking up all their wine and ruining their cultural gatherings.]

I'll do it, watch this. Eh, you don't need to be so formal either.

[He finds Kevin's name in the index and sends over a simple Hello! which will be dinging up on his CereVice screen momentarily. The sender's name shows up as Levi Baskerville.]

Isn't it fascinating how simple such a thing is? A very intelligent, very impatient person must have been the one to engineer it.

[He would not object to wine drinking, but ruining cultural gatherings, for shame sir. ]

Mister...Baskerville?

[That is not very formal, is it? After almost jumping at his CereVice's vibration, he gingerly types an answer with those very tiny keys. The final result is attributed to a certain Kevin Cecil:]

Or perhaps someone who enjoyed writing letters?

[He must admit: this is fabulous! Imagine how many messages he could send young master on a single day! My goodness, Mister Baskerville is a really helpful gentleman, after all.]

Hah, it's fast, isn't it?

[He loves cultural gatherings! So much that he's willing to cancel plans with perhaps the only person in the world he truly cares about in order to attend them. Or maybe because of those facts. Either way, it's fun to watch people play instruments from their own countries, but it sure is even more fun to watch the whole thing go to shit and embarrass the host in return. Nothing like watching a tragic play happen without having to set foot in the opera house.]

It can be used to send a photograph through as well. [He says, and answers that text with a photo that's been saved onto his own CereVice, just to show that it can be done. It's a photo of the inside of the Metro-rail station, with one of the trains coming into view as people on the platform prepare to board it. Truthfully, he hadn't even meant to take this photo; he'd just been messing around with the device while waiting for said train and hadn't thought to delete it yet.]

[You seem like you could use some serious schadenfreude management, Mister Baskerville...

Oh dear, he hates the tube, but he is also impressed by the picture. All those people moving about and they were still caught on film. No need to sit still. He is also forming a little plan in his mind: to send as many pictures and messages to young master as possible. It will be like sending him dozens of letters each month, but better!]

How impressive! Could you show me how to do it, sir?

[He offers his own device without any concern about his privacy since he, huh, doesn't realize it's at stake. Besides, all he has is pictures from flowers, Levi, other people, and only two contacts: William Twining and Vietnam.]

[If by "management" you mean "with more frequency", then yes, it's true. He died a terrible death and then got trapped in Dead Glen Land for a hundred years okay he has earned this level of entertainment in his bizzaro afterlife!

And the young master can thank Levi later when he receives 50 photos a day of every stupid thing that Kevin thinks he needs to see along with what is sure to be paragraphs of autocorrected wit. Levi holds the device up so his new friend can see what he's doing, offering some weak commentary as he goes.]

It's all done in this messaging application. Once you have the correct person selected, you simply tap this writing space with your index finger, then this crude image of a camera, and then select the photo you want to send to them. Haha, be sure to double check that you've picked the right one before pressing the send option. It would be embarrassing to send the wrong photo to the wrong person!

[But he doesn't hesitate to select the photo of himself and then send it to his own device, apparently too cool to heed his own advice about double checking your message first. His device dings a second later. Ain't technology grand?]

[Young master might harbor dubious feelings about being bombarded by Kevin's spam, but Kevin himself has no shadow of doubt that this is the coolest thing ever. Just as amazing as this age's cleaning products. Technology is, indeed, grand. Levi's commentary is a little hard to follow - except for the embarrassment part - but observation is the grandmother of knowledge, and he catches the general idea quick enough.

The dinging sound never ceases to surprise him, though. Like a manor's kitchen bell.]

Oh, thank you so much, sir. That is one of the kindest things anyone has done to me since my arrival.

[To think that photographing weird lonely guys by accident could bring so much wisdom!]

[He smirks at that, not exactly unkindly, but in a way that isn't entirely devoid of cruel amusement. As is Levi's natural state of being; who knows just what he's thinking.]

Is it? But it was entirely selfish on my part. Now I have a proper photo to share on social media that wasn't taken by my own hand.

[wtf is a selfie]

[wtf is social media? Does it have anything to do with socialism? If that is the case, Kevin disapproves.]

...Oh.

[You're really lonely, aren't you sir? He adds, not without trepidation:]

I- Please, feel free to contact me whenever you need more photographs, sir.

Are photographs the only things that you're good at?

[It's a rude sentence, but it's not spoken rudely. Some people just have no tact, and Levi Baskerville is definitely one of those people. BUt really, this guy is interesting, but mostly he's receptive and subservient. Those things come in handy when you don't like to do your own dirty work.]

[Isn't it a good thing Kevin is not easily offended by humans? Though Levi could make an excellent demon candidate.]

Good heavens, I hope not! Young master would fire me if that was the case!

[ And nobody wishes to be a bad servant, right? ]

[He'd take that as a compliment tbh.

But that clears that part of it up, the young man is a servant. Maybe he's a gardener as well, which would explain taking photos of all the trees, or perhaps it's an errand from his young master. Either way, Levi doesn't react at all to the phrase; it's clearly a commonly used one to him.]

Ah, then I must be keeping you from him. Forgive me for wasting so much of your time.

[He mostly sounds like he means it, even if his body language is as casual and nonchalant as it has been this whole time.]

[ It's not a compliment, sir! Demons are evil.

But why must the gentleman be so intimidating?]

Oh please, do not worry, sir. He is still considering which profession he will choose. I was merely preparing myself for my own.

[He takes a step back nevertheless, as if accepting Levi's suggestion. ]

Well! Best of luck in your endeavor!

[And with a final wave, he's off! This guy is fun to mess with, but he's earnest to a fault, and before too long he might actually start feeling bad about screwing with him. But hey, he was also helpful...! Sort of. Hopefully his lesson was worth the anxiety he gave the poor man during this entire thing.]

[Open] Say cheese?

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