3; voice.

[plays]

Well, that was fun! I now have a whole new perspective on the saying "sleeping with the fishes." It was much more comfortable than anybody could expect, given the usual context of that saying, hee hee! I don't suppose there's research available on how merfolk sleep. Did I do it like a dolphin, I wonder? Half of the brain awake and vigilant at all times, that's how they don't drown while they're getting shuteye, you know. All of us should aspire to be so on the ball.

It did lack company, but I don't mind taking a day or two here and there to stop and smell the anemones. That joke would go over better if there was actually a sea creature named after a flower that I could reference. Is there a marine biologist in the house? Help a brother out. [Another giggle.]

In conclusion, the only serious disappointment was the lack of singing, dancing, choreographed wildlife bursting into song and dance at random. Maybe one of these days we can look forward to a whaddyacallem where everyone is changed into some form of fluffy woodland creature, singing his or her little heart out - dancing if you can't sing, obviously. The choreography there would really be something to watch, I'm sure. Or maybe that's happened already? Somebody tell me if it has. I'll be so sad to have missed it, but I'll make do with hand-me-down stories anyhow.

[Somebody was transformed to mer...folk during that Flood! He spent his days beneath the glassy waves, observing other people with interest. Now in retrospect it is equal parts fun to remember, and annoying.]

Comments

[plays]

But what if I want to be a cute woodland creature while I do it?

[thatisasecret]

From what I've been told of the inhabitants of this ship, I'm quite sure you could find someone able to accommodate your desires.

[plays]

While I've heard that there are magic types around these parts, I've been led to believe that most people have extra powers curbed. So sad, to be left with only delusions of grandeur!

Besides, I'd rather play accompaniment, to be honest.

[thatisasecret]

Ah, but you misunderstand me, what kind of a warden would I be if I advised you to trust an inmate to transform you? No no, that would be most irresponsible of me, even if inmates did retain their natural abilities here. No, I was suggesting that you approach one of the wardens, who (as I'm sure you know) arrive here with our gifts perfectly in tact.

Are you sure? I'm beginning to think that you'd make a splendid fawn.

[plays]

I'm strongly opposed to not having opposable thumbs! It's true fawns are very stylish, even if spots might not be in this season, but how am I supposed to provide background music then, hmm?

[thatisasecret]

It's simple, you would be assigned to the percussion section, where you could beat against the drums with your tiny hooves!

It will be a shame about your thumbs, but these are the sacrifices demanded by the arts.

[plays]

Are we going for a full orchestra here, or just for the equivalent of a woodland mariachi band?

[thatisasecret]

Oh, you thought other people would be joining you? I imagined it would just be you, as a fawn, scrambling against your drum.

[plays]

You're not much of a musician, are you? One sad drumming fawn alone wouldn't be much to listen to!

[thatisasecret]

Perhaps not. It would be quite a thing to look at, though.

[plays]

I recommend you watch Dumbo at the earliest opportunity. You'd probably like it.

[thatisasecret]

I don't believe I've ever heard of that before. It's a play?

[zeitgeists]

It's a movie! Have you heard of those?

[thatisasecret]

I haven't, but I'm certainly intrigued.

[zeitgeists]

Ever seen a flipbook?

[thatisasecret]

Ah, perhaps? [He's seen books that you can flip through the pages of? That's the same thing, right?] Is that very different to a normal book?

[zeitgeists]

It's a way of animating images when you flip through the pages! You start with one drawing, and change it slowly from page to page. Then, when you flip the pages quickly and watch the drawing, your eyes will trick you into thinking it's actually a fluidly moving figure - if you've drawn the transitions smoothly enough, of course, hee hee.

Movies are like that, only refined.

[thatisasecret]

My, how wonderful! There's a library here, isn't there? I'll have to look some of these flick books up, clearly I'm quite out of touch.

So Dumbo is an movie? What is it of?

[plays]

Some libraries even have movies you can check out, at least in the modern day! But I haven't bothered looking to see if this one has any yet. Dumbo is heartwarming tale about a little elephant who struggles with a birth defect.

[thatisasecret]

No sense of intellectual curiosity? How disappointing.

[And... considering this came from a conversation about a fawn playing the drums, that description kind of catches him off guard...]

Ah, truly? My, what depressing taste you have.

[plays]

Isn't it? But if intellectual curiosity is what you're after you're probably in for some disappointments. [Well, he sounds like a creature of perfect levity, at least.] Anyhow, it's really very sweet. Little Dumdum struggles until he turns his disadvantage into a selling point. You know how they say beggars with obvious mutilations have more earning power!

[thatisasecret]

Mm, but you must be curious about something, surely? Or how would you ever manage to stumble across the wickedness required to end up here?

How charming. I hadn't imagined that such emotionally exploitative tactics would be as effective in the animal kingdom. Clearly I have quite underestimated the capacity for pity which elephants possess.

[plays]

Well, elephants are very intelligent, at least. There's some basis for reality in that one! More so than jungle cats raising feral humans.

Anyway, my lack of curiosity makes the source of my profligate wickedness all the more obvious, doesn't it? [He tuts. Tut tut.] The incurious can do quite as much wickedness as the curious.