Hyperspace Engineering Tour (Open to all who want to see Slarti's factory)

[world-builder.livejournal.com]

Starting at five o’clock, Slartibartfast ambled around to each of the common rooms, pasting instructions for the tour onto each board. He’d realized he’d neglected to specify a meeting place, so, in addition to strongly advising good coats and sturdy shoes, he let everyone know that they were to meet in the Great Hall at six.

He killed the remaining hour by hunting for lint and examining the stones that made up the school building--whoever had been making granite in this area had done a bang-up job of it. He might not know a great deal about Earthman society, but he did know good craftsmanship, and whoever had been in charge of this part of the world had clearly known what they were doing.

Come six o’clock he wandered down to the Great Hall, a small red square on a gold chain dangling from his fingers.

“All, all, all right, if everyone, ah, could kindly hop into the car--” he indicated an aircar that looked suspiciously like a minibus, hovering several feet above the floor “--and, and, and buckle up, we can, ah, we can be, well, we can be off.”

((Repost to correct mun idiocy))

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[every-daae.livejournal.com]

Christine, who had quietly slipped on the back of the bus, tumbled out of the door. Christine had dressed as warmly and sensibly as she knew how, and thus had donned almost all the petticoats she owned, under her favorite white dress, a cloak, her trademark red scarf, and a pair of surprisingly comfortable heeled boots. She also had decided to bring her muff along, which she had begun to think was a very bad idea. It kept her hands warm, yes, but she was having considerable difficulty getting her hands out so she could stand.

Eventually, she managed to get up. She blushed furiously and shook the snow out of her skirts, before quickly repinning her hair. "Oh dear, I'm dreadfully sorry about that," she murmured, to no one in particular. Christine managed, after several minutes of awkward blushing, to look up and regain some of her composure. "Which way, Monsieur Slartibartfast?"

[world-builder.livejournal.com]

"Are, are you all right, young lady?" he asked, wondering what exactly the muff was--to him it looked like some sort of soft handcuff, though he highly doubted that's what it was. "All right, ah, everybody, you know, be careful, it's quite, you know, quite slippery."

They didn't have to bother with the interdimensional vortex nonsense--the Improbability Drive had dropped them on a hill not far above the factory, which could not be easily distinguished from the snowy landscape.

"That way," he said, pointing. "Follow, ah, you know, follow me--it really isn't, isn't far."

[every-daae.livejournal.com]

Christine began blushing again. Oh dear. That really was the main problem with being blonde. Blushes were embarrassingly apparent. "Yes, I'm perfectly fine. Thank you Monsieur. I was thinking of other things." She tilted her head to the side, and followed Slartibartfast. "Like... do you know what karaoke is? It's got something to do with singing, but I don't know exactly what it is."

[world-builder.livejournal.com]

"Karaoke? I, I, I'm not sure, you know. I've not ever heard of, of it. Never done a, you know, a lot of singing, though, so that's not, ah, not terribly surprising." Yet another Earthman term he was going to have to look up--the Babelfish translated everything, but didn't offer definitions.

[every-daae.livejournal.com]

"But it is some form of singing," Christine persisted looking up at him and smiling prettily. "Have you seen the flyers? It's got something to do with picking out songs and singing duets. I shall be glad of it, as long as it's song. But you haven't sung much? What a travesty!" She laughed and pushed her hair out of her eyes. "Oh, you must sing at this... karaoke thing with me! I'm sure it would be quite diverting."

[world-builder.livejournal.com]

Such a terribly charming young lady...he wasn't sure he could say no to her, despite the fact that the thought of singing in front of anybody was appalling.

"Well, I, I, I really don't know," he said. "I mean, I've got no, you know, idea if I could do it without sounding like rubbish."

[every-daae.livejournal.com]

"Oh, please?" Christine asked, gently touching his sleeve. She looked up at him pleadingly, blue eyes very wide and pleading.

On the very rare occasion that Christine had wanted to do something enough to go after it, she'd found this move to be very effective. She had no idea why, but it did

[world-builder.livejournal.com]

Oh, how in the name of Vogon was he supposed to resist that?

"Well, ah, well, if it will, you know, make you happy, I'll certainly give it a go," he said, wondering just what he was getting himself into. "Though I, I warn you now, I'll probably make a perfect fool out of myself."

[every-daae.livejournal.com]

((Gah, I'm sorry my last post was so redundant and just generally bad. I dashed it off as I was rushing out of the house this morning, and I hadn't meant to press the 'Post Comment' button when I did. Sorry about that.))

Christine spun around in a pirouette to express her delight. "Oh, I'm sure you won't! And it would make me so wonderfully happy!" She flung her arms around his shoulders in a rather surprising and spontaneous embrace and beamed up at him. "You won't be rubbish at all! I'm sure everything will turn out perfectly, and it won't be at all foolish, and everything will turn out to be splendid fun!"

She tended to get rather exuberant when it came to singing, and, as always, she was delighted to have someone so sing with. Solos were lovely, and all, but there was just something about duets that thrilled her.

[world-builder.livejournal.com]

((Haha, that's all right. Poor Slartibartfast is powerless against the puppy eyes anyway.))

Slartibartfast was quite startled--he couldn't remember anybody hugging him; planet building was not a profession in which people were prone to hug. Once he got over his surprise, however, he found he didn't mind--she was such an enthusiastic young lady, and reminded him of some of the younger engineers who were so keen about their work--she was as excited about her music as they were about their various tasks.

"I, well, I do hope I can live up to your expectations," he said, finding himself smiling at her. He certainly couldn't promise her he wouldn't look a complete twit, but he could try. "Though I, I'm afraid I don't know, you know, don't know many songs. I shall have to research Earthman music."

[every-daae.livejournal.com]

"Oh, that's perfectly all right," Christine said, with a smile. "I don't know anything outside of opera, really. Well, I do know some folk songs, but none of them are really duets unless you improvise a descant. Oh, would you like to pick out the music?" She looked up at him and smiled even more. "I'm sure I'd like anything you decided on."