Austen World 2

Posted on Tue Dec 21st, 2021 @ 1:16am by Chief Helmsman Eden Bowers & Executive Officer Jake Ford & Evahnae Kohl & Ships Doctor Hiram Maitland M.D. & Jinx Jorasco & Oliver Lucas

Mission: Mission 14: Holoworld
Location: Holoship - Austenworld
Timeline: MD-03
2266 words - 4.5 OF Standard Post Measure

Jake still couldn't get used to the tight-fitting pants, but he had to admit that the world they had entered was glorious. This era of Earth's history had some great natural environments, and the massive estate gardens they seemed to have arrived in were definitely a pleasant surrounding. The grand house at the end of the path was just intriguing enough for him to want to explore, probably by design.

The characters were something totally different. They'd not encountered many yet, but apparently they were on their way to meet some lord and his family, escorted by something called a footman. They used a lot of words he wasn't sure he followed, but Eden seemed happy enough, and Jinx was -- well, Jinx was being Jinx.

"So what's the storyline here?" he asked quietly, wondering if this would be like the Wild West scenario he'd seen, or one of the others like it.

“Wow,” Jinx said with awe as they followed the footman. She popped up to the man in the frock coat leading them. “So...you’re a podiatrist?” she asked. “What got you into that?”

"Most of her stories featured middle to upper class women who were intelligent, funny, caring, and were bound by the limitations of their time and were expected to find husbands who would take care of them. But what I loved about the books was that these women were way ahead of their time and convinced they didn't need a man to complete them. They ended up falling in love anyway, but they were like the original feminists. I guess we need to look for the woman of the story, unless that's supposed to be Jinx or I." Eden chuckled at Jinx's confusion.

"Maybe it's Hiram."

The voice from behind carried in a way that may have seemed a breach of seemly conduct, but, judging by the the shortest member of the trio's apparent delight at the stares they were evoking, the faux pas wasn't likely to be deemed regrettable any time soon. It was an unlikely assortment, fronted by a diminutive brunette having occasional difficulty with the excessive length of her skirts, but the focal point was very much the lanky bastion of eternal patience to her left who, for some inexplicable reason, seemed to be carrying her sun bonnet...on his head. The third member had thus far been spared any role as a portable clothes rack, but it seemed only a matter of time.

Eva grinned, tresses of black curls bouncing around her face as she and her two medical scapegoats finally caught up. "I got a message about some sort of adventure that involves looking pretty, so I found sacrifices." Reaching out, she poked Oliver in the upper arm with a finger whilst simultaneously directing her gaze upwards to admire Hiram's millinery. "I wanted him to wear a dress, but I got overridden."

"Regretfully I was unable to procure a dress in my size," was Hiram's dry comment as he stepped out from behind Eva, his hands clasped behind his back. Instead he wore a crisp suit, with pressed slacks and a white button-down shirt underneath a dark blazer-which was promptly detracted from by the clear flourish of his sun hat, wide-brimmed and colorful.

“Hi!” Jinx greeted the new arrivals. “You look great!” she told Eva. “Though Hiram’s hat looks more like mine than Jake’s,” she mused, unused to this type of fashion.

"I like my hat," Hiram murmured, his tone mild and amused, well aware of how ridiculous Eva's lace-and-peacock-feather hat looked on him. His brows arched upward as he surveyed the rest of the party-goers, and he tipped his chin up to greet them, having only a cursory knowledge of each individual person. He'd spent a good deal of his time since his arrival from Freecloud working and familiarizing himself with the sector. "Pleasure to meet all of you in a less official capacity," he added.

Eden looked positively delighted with the newcomers. "You all look so beautiful! Er, sorry, Handsome, because back then they used handsome for both men and women. Which isn't at all confusing now, as we use it only for men. Anyway...welcome to the story!" She would have hugged them if not for fear she would somehow embarrass Jake.

Jake felt like groaning. Originally the idea had been for him to indulge Eden and treat it as something for just the two of them. Now there was a veritable party. He locked eyes with Oliver, who seemed to be almost in the same boat. The younger man just shrugged and gave a silent apology.

"Well. Since we're all here, I'm told some sort of lord of the estate is holding something called 'afternoon tea' somewhere in the house," Jake explained to the newcomers. He looked at Eden. "I have no idea what that is or where we're going."

“Well, obviously tea you drink in the afternoon!” Jinx said. “I’m sure someone will tell us.” She flounced after them, showing way more ankle than was proper -- scandalous! -- as she kept her skirts out of the way of her much shorter legs as she kept up with the taller members of the party.

"Tea?" Eva was having her own issues with a dress that was just a tad on the long side. In between storming sickbay for worthy recruits and trying to get her hair to behave, there hadn't been a lot of time to adjust the length of her best estimate in dress sizes. Staggering sideways slightly as her heel caught the hem, the brunette hooked an arm through Hiram's and held on for dear life, opting to maintain him as a ballast even after she'd found her balance again. "I hope they have something stronger than tea."

"Perhaps they'll have nice ice water," Hiram murmured to her, entirely too innocent.

"I seem to recall the gentry of this time did sometimes enjoy some port or whisky," Oliver offered tentatively. Seeing the looks he was getting he just shrugged. "Hey, I read sometimes!"

“Yes, Angel tells me males read those magazines for the articles,” Jinx said confidently. “Though they have less...frills in those holo-pics,” she mused.

The cluster of guests was met by another formally-dressed older gentleman with a somewhat snooty look to him, who motioned them into a large doorway to the house. Inside they were met with a massive ornate entrance hall, wooden-floored and immaculately maintained.

Beyond the next set of doors they arrived in a large reception room, complete with comfortable looking chairs, bookcases, and an open fireplace. Rising to greet them, another smartly dressed, white haired, geriatric man smiled broadly.

"Ah, there you all are. Welcome to Hawkcliffe Manor Estate. I am Lord Hawkcliffe, and...ah..." He looked over his shoulder as another door opened and three younger women bustled quickly into the room as if shoved by some unseen individual. "Ah. My daughters." He motioned to each in turn.

"Anna..." The first, taller than the others, curtseyed with a shy giggle. "Emily..." The second, her hair curled in tight ringlets, dipped and winked. "And Elizabeth. Elizabeth!" He repeated himself sharply as the third girl, wearing a tiny pair of glasses, seemed completely lost in a book, and looked up with only mild interest at the guests.

Ultimately Hiram didn't really understand what this was. He lacked the context or cultural cues to fully appreciate what was before him, but he relished the opportunity to interact more with his crewmates and very seriously drew himself up to address the lord. He didn't know the rules of this time period or whether a handshake would be out of the question, so he kept his hands laced behind his back formally. "Pleased to meet you all. I am Hiram." He like, talked, to the holograms. Look.

Eden leaned over and whispered into his ear, "People are generally known by their surnames." But they also usually were introduced by someone else. Then she curtsied at the new people and spoke. "My beau, Mr. Ford, and this is Miss Jorasco, Miss Kohl, Mr. Maitland, and Mr. Lucas. We are very pleased to have been invited."

Ope. Hiram stared at Eden for a long moment, unblinking in electric symphony as it appeared he was reading invisible words in front of her face, back and forth, back and forth. After a split second, he relaxed into a smile and he huffed self-deprecatingly. "My familiarity with this setting is quite poor. My apologies, Ms. Bowers." He gestured to her as if to introduce her, attempting to make up for his faux pas.

"I am a hundred percent going to forget that," Eva hissed at him, after executing a flourishing courtesy that was perhaps a little more performance than was required. Still gripping Hiram's arm, more as a precaution against falling over than out of any sense of deference to customs, the brunette eyeballed Oliver and, with a less-than-subtle jerk of her head towards Jinx's direction, then stared pointedly at where her arm linked with the lanky doctor's and back up at the young medic.

“A pleasure to meet you all,” Jinx said, trying to imitate the curtsy. She managed not to fall all over herself in the skirt. “Such pretty daughters!” She grinned up at Lord Hawkcliffe. “What are you reading?” she asked Elizabeth, dancing out of the way of another guest who didn’t see her short form and nearly tripped over her.

Eden blinked at them. They really weren't familiar with the setting, so she would forgive them, but in another time and place this might be highly amusing.

"The History of Sir Charles Grandison," Elizabeth, the youngest daughter, answered shyly. The other two giggled at her; evidently she was the quiet one.

"Well then. Afternoon tea will be served in the gazebo. Which of you was Lady Bowers?" Lord Hawkcliffe inquired, peering at the group.

Eden raised one finger. "I am, sir."

"Please, my lady, do grant me the delight of hosting you anon." He extended an arm for her to link onto, apparently an effort to express his tradition as host as well as to help the older gentleman walk. Jake awkwardly fell in behind, not entirely sure what the etiquette was, but doing his best to join in. He looked at everyone else, wondering if they were all in the same boat.

Eden thought it rather odd, but when in Rome. She gave a small shrug and took the arm. "I am betrothed," she said not entirely truthfully, but it was easier than explaining dating in her time period.

If, by 'boat', he meant feeling awkward and ignorant, then it was difficult to say if Eva qualified. Far more apt was to simply accuse her of failing to stay in character, having claimed the role of chorus director without much success. "Go walk with her," she hissed at Oliver, head jerking towards Jinx, since her first less-than-subtle hint hadn't produced the desired result. Rolling her eyes at the pair of them; one who seemed unable to do anything but stand in one place and the other who was doing everything but stand still, Eva unhooked her arm from Hiram's and gave him a gentle bump towards the other woman, reaching back instead to commandeer Oliver's arm herself. "Go rescue her, will you."

“Sir Charles Grandison,” Jinx repeated, falling in alongside Elizabeth, impressed that the girl could read and walk at the same time. “I don’t know him. He must be important if someone wrote a history about him.”

The young woman blushed shyly, as though not expecting to be asked to discuss it. "He is so virtuous. It is seemingly rare to find a man in these times that is without a hint of villainy."

"If you ever looked up from your books long enough to even notice a man..." her sister Emily snorted.

“There seem to be plenty of handsome young men here,” Jinx said to Elizabeth and Emily. “Maybe one of them. You could introduce me!” she said to Elizabeth with a smile.

"Oh my. I..." the young woman blushed.

"Come along, Elizabeth! Do stop dawdling, girl!" her father called from the front of the column.

Jake looked at Eden, and then at the large train of followers they had built, then back to her. "Didn't you say this was going to be romantic?"

Jinx grinned at Elizabeth. If there hadn’t been such a height difference, she would have done the entirely era-appropriate act of linking arms with the young woman and taking a stroll about the drawing room, discussing gossip.

As bidden by Eva, Hiram moved to Jinx and interjected himself calmly, smoothly taking her arm where it was offered instead of allowing the hologram to do so with a light, almost clinical touch. Guiding her back to the group of friends, he eventually ended up unlinked and on his own, hands clasped behind his back formally as he took in the sights and sounds around them. He didn't really understand this world, but it was intriguing, and more than that, it gave him the opportunity to observe his crewmates.

Eden shrugged as she looked at Jake. "I guess we'll just go where the program takes us. How bad can it be really?" She smiled at him innocently. IT was rather a grand adventure using her definition of the word. A grand adventure with no strings attached. What more could a girl, even an Eden, ask for?