A Bout of Progress

    While the weather is tranquil by all standards, with a gentle, but steady ocean wind sweetened by the salt spray, there is a hurricane in the area and it shows no sign of stopping. And at the eye of the storm is calm. It is unsurprising that Elly is there, firing off chims, answering half a dozen messengers, and politely addressing the curiosity of a minor noble of House Corwen. Amusingly, it was the man that a few titles ago she was to marry. She doesn't know that, nor does he, but behind the scenes there was no doubt one last shot at drawing her into the family.

    It failed, and the man is sent off. He's quite pleased, though, with a guide and the freedom to hike the path of this new wonder that is coming to the Fourlands.

    "You know, there are times when I wish I could drink," notes Elly.

    A second later, Tae chimes in from behind her, "I'd like to see a drunk Elly again. It's been a long time."

Goldenblade has been working her ass off lately, and she looks a bit frazzled as she juggles projects. She doesn't complain, though, we're getting a ton of work /done/ and that makes her feel good. The nice thing about her job is she can point to the final product and say 'I made that'. She looks up from where she is working more or less alongside Wake's whirlwind of organization, and offers a 'Huh?'

"You can't drink?" she asks, puzzled and taking the question literally. "Have you tried harder?" It's her general reaction to unexpected metaphor. At Tae's comment, she ohs, and asks, "Can't hold booze? Yeah, it's surprisingly common. You know it's partly genetic. There are several peoples that never developed booze in their prehistoric tribes, and so never developed the stomach biota to deal properly with it."

    Elly laughs softly. "It's more of a matter of keeping my head, I suppose, and a promise made. Though, yes, I never quite liked the feeling of partaking to excess, even if, apparently, my escapades were considered 'notable' by my wife."

    Said wife snickers. "Notable, indeed. Fortunately not messy, though. Just a bit silly, among other things." Tae is keeping busy, though for the most part she's just keeping Elly company. There is, at least, one voice that is not here just to get things done.

    Elly, however, is focused. "So if I understand this correctly, we have enough ballast gathered in Eas to make the line to the sea, and half what we need at the Olympus Mines to make the way to Eas. And on top of that, we have metal humming out of the steamworks for the rail and we are accumulating enough wood for the sleepers." A pause. She looks over to Goldenblade. "Sleepers? I understood we were focused only on freight cars..." Sure, the word is there, but the technical term is not one she's familiar with.

Goldenblade's knowledge of railroading is not as extensive has her knowledge of construction, but she's had to get a crash course, and there are Australians on the Yamato server, so she's learned a few new words. "A sleeper is a railroad tie," she explains. "You were talking to one of the Australian players again, that's their slang. As it happens, though, we -will- have a few sleeper cars, so we can move workers back and forth along with the ore, so miners can take breaks from mining, or if there's an emergency and we need all hands on deck."

As to drinking too much, she shrugs. "That's the thing with you kids, you look at drinking from the wrong perspective. It's like that one college movie from the 70's. You drink to party, to get drunk, drinking as an end goal. Back in the day, drinking wasn't like that, and we did it rationally. Most of us. As I say, some people can't hold their liquor because of genetics, but most people know, or used to know, how to not drink themselves silly."

    The many times that Goldenblade calls other adventurers kids, you'd think the novelty would wear off. But it hasn't. The Landers do not understand some of that (college movie? 70s?) but more than a few grin to see their Marchioness referred to as a kid.

    Elly rather likes it, at this point. It can be nice to have a reminder that she is not the oldest person present. She needs a moment before she can properly respond, though. She has that distracted look that makes it clear she is being chimmed.

    "Got it. Yes. Approved. Approved. Denied. No. We will follow the route. Shiruba determined that route. It is a perfect route to follow. Maybe if you show them a few Olympus War Parties reducing those monsters to glowing dust they will calm down."

    She laughs at the answer, and then it is over. And back to the moment.

    "You know, I did not usually drink to get intoxicated. Though obviously we know from stories before Prohibition days that farther back there were pretty extreme drinking issues. Alcoholism has been a problem for a long time. It is about various kinds of moderation, I suppose."

Goldenblade falls silent as Wake deals with her chims, and smirks as she directs the skittish and risk averse Landers. She huhs about drinking and prohibition, and reminds Wake, "That was only in the US, remember, and that was because America -was- a melting pot, and the groups that couldn't hold their liquor made it look bad on everyone. Add to that there wasn't a lot else for single people to do at the end of a day, in a frontier town, but go to the local saloon and drink with the others. Television wouldn't be invented for decades."

    "Fair enough. Though it was a broader problem. And it remains one. Which is part of why I limit myself. I do not want to give the children bad ideas of what appropriate behavior looks like."

    Elly continues to deal with several small interruptions. By this point, the two are used to addressing constant distractions in the midst of a conversation. It simply cannot be avoided without work getting set back.

    "I keep going through a mental checklist as if I am forgetting something. Not something small. I am not even in one of those odd moods. As if everything we are doing is somehow not enough to keep my mind from wandering. Maybe I should pick a hobby to neglect, then I can feel more accomplished."

    Tae has been weaving in and out of this, and three is food set out, and drinks. "Those are imports from Pela's cafe. Very proper tea. And some sweets. Which makes me think perhaps I should send her a few messages. It's a long passage. She should really make a cafe on the port here. It would add some charm to things."

    Wake looks up at Tae, then over to Goldenblade. "Well, that one goes on my list. It involves talking." A laugh and she takes a drink of the familiar tea. "I wonder if we should give a shot at making a bullet train at some point. I mean, once we get an appropriately large and flat landmass to work with." Cause again, it is never enough.

Goldenblade shrugs about it being a broader problem. "It depends how the Landers are programmed," she says, because she still believes she's in a game. "If it's random, two percent of any group will be problem drinkers, than nothing you can do will help it. If it's genetic, Japanese are not one of the types that tend to have drinking issues genetically, though I'll tell you, socially is a different matter. Sometimes it's about saving face to not look like a lightweight, and they wind up looking like an idiot instead."

"But as to showing kids, isn't it better to show them responsible drinking rather than abstinence. If you show them abstinence, when they do start, they won't know what to do. So have a glass of wine. But just one. And smile." She smirks. As for missing things, she says, "If you forget it, it couldn't have been that important, right? Or you'd at least write it down. You've got clerks for that, too." She points to the mass of messengers going back and forth.

She shrugs at bullet trains, and says, "That'd take a revolution in engines on top of everything else. We're pushing the tech hard as it is."

    "Demonstrating self control and poise. That I can do."

    Elly makes a mental note for that. She takes advice when she finds it useful. And this is something she will run with.

    "We are pushing the tech. And augmenting it to prevent pollution. I'm most excited about the water work we're doing, though. I can't wait to get water treatment everywhere. So many diseases are carried in bad water. We can fix that for everyone." A pause. "Eventually."

Goldenblade smiles about Wake demonstrating poise, and nods. Wake is made of poise. As to pushing the tech in a green manner, she laughs and says, "When my kids were little, there was this puppet program on TV, and this frog puppet would sing, It's Not Easy Being Green. I'm surprised no one's adopted that slogan. But I guess magic makes some things easy that are hard in real life. Then again, we don't have entrenched interests campaighning against us."