Log: Edmund Pevensie and Cho Chang Who: Edmund Pevensie and Cho Chang What: Nostalgia and new beginnings. When: December 31, 2370 Where: The SadTech New Year's Eve Party Warnings: None. As G-rated as it gets.
Edmund normally enjoyed a New Year's Eve more than this one. That wasn't to say that the lounge did not look like a veritable wonderland or that he wasn't pleased to see his siblings and friends enjoying themselves. Mostly pleased. If they (Lucy, in particular) had only chosen better company with whom to enjoy themselves, he would have been more pleased.
Edmund did not know Barry Allen very well, but he intended to change that tonight. Newly awoken from the amber, Barry was at least polite and respectful and had Dr. Caitlin Snow's friendship to vouch for him. On the negative side, he seemed to have developed a suspicious habit of finding himself under the mistletoe with Edmund's younger sister at these parties. Edmund would trust Thea with his life or that of any of his siblings, so while he would keep an eye on how Thea's brother handled himself on the dance floor with Susan, Oliver also received tentative credit. Besides Susan usually knew how to handle herself at these affairs. Edmund's worries for her were real, but of a different nature than his concerns for Lucy.
Lucy liked everyone. She trusted everyone (mostly), and her current conversation partner did not, in Edmund's opinion, merit that trust. Mordecai Roberts had raised Edmund's hackles since joining the refugees last April. He was clearly intelligent and good humored - a little too intelligent for what Edmund judged to be the emptiness of his conversation. But he posted on the network while intoxicated (or at least severely hungover) and rather boasted of being a filial disappointment. He was also far too carelessly flirtatious in general, and in particular, too visibly appreciative of the sight of Lucy in that white evening gown to be regarded as a gentleman.
Peter, from his expression, shared Edmund's distrust. Edmund was just contemplating asking what his older brother thought of introducing the company to some Narnian festival traditions - the Great Snow Dance, for example, or a demonstration of swordplay - when he realized he was frowning in close proximity to another (entirely innocent) guest at the party. “Good evening,” he said, turning slightly, although he was still angled so as to keep an eye on Roberts. “Pardon my manners.”
Cho was happy to be back in New York for the holidays. She was enjoying life on Luna and had actually discovered some interesting things which she has passed to Thea but in the brief time she’d been there, she hadn’t met anyone she would consider a friend. Here at least she had gotten to know several people including Lucy whom she was watching at the moment. She looked beautiful tonight and Cho was glad to see her so happy. Some people were just the sort that you always wished the best for because of their sweet nature and Lucy was one of them.
“Oh that’s fine,” she said, turning toward the voice. “I didn’t see you there so I suppose that my manners weren’t the best either. How are you this evening?” She knew this was one of Lucy’s brothers and she thought she knew which one but she didn’t want to call him by the wrong name. “You’re Lucy’s brother aren’t you?”
“I am, yes.” Edmund was not surprised to be recognized by his siblings. They were, for all their ups and downs, a unit. Lucy, especially, had a way of making friends everywhere. He smiled and held out a hand, trying to look as though he were not wishing he could overhear his sister's conversation. “Edmund. I'm doing well, just not quite as social as I ought to be, I suppose. And you, are you enjoying the party?” He might not be as outgoing as his younger sister, but then few were, and Edmund had been trained as a diplomat once upon a time.
“I’m Cho,” she replied, taking his hand and smiling at him. “And yes, I’m enjoying the party. I’ve been away for a few weeks so it’s good to be back for the holidays.” She couldn’t help but notice where his eyes were focused and she said “Keeping an eye on your sister?” Her tone was teasing, she didn’t have any siblings but she had plenty of friends who had had brothers who were more than happy to stand in and fulfill the brotherly protecting duties.
Edmund smiled back and shrugged a little self-consciously. “Keeping an eye out for, more than an eye on,” he said. “Lucy's sensible.” Mostly. Edmund worried that his sister was overly trusting sometimes, but he didn't want her to change too much.
“Where have you been?” he asked, since she'd mentioned traveling. Edmund sometimes regretted not getting out of New York more often, but there was a great deal of work to be done at home, both for SadTech and for his legal studies. He intended to take the bar exam in February, and revising took a great deal of attention.
“She is,” Cho agreed. “I’ve gotten to know her a bit since I’ve been here. She’s a very smart young woman.” The answer to his second question was one she wasn’t sure how to answer. The fact that she had been on Luna didn’t have to be a secret but what she’d been doing there wasn’t public knowledge. “I was on Luna,” she said. “Working on some things. It’s nice. I never dreamed I would actually stand on the moon.”
Lucy was smart, Edmund thought, but she was also very willing to believe the best in people, anxious to, even. Edmund was much more skeptical by nature and experience. He believed in offering the benefit of the doubt (mostly), and he was certainly not enough of a hypocrite to deny anyone who wished it an opportunity to change and improve, but he usually preferred to see that desire manifested a bit more obviously. It was a bit rude to let his thoughts wander too far that way, however, especially in the middle of a conversation.
“I dreamed of it,” said Edmund, smiling a bit more. “In my time, though, it was still just the stuff of storybooks and movies. It was nothing like space travel now. If I'd believed I could actually get there, I would have been thrilled.” That was too much about himself. “What is your favorite part?” he asked.
“I’m a witch, raised in a world of magic, I went to a boarding school for wizards but I never dreamed about being this far in the future and going into space,” she smiled. “I like looking back as we leave Earth and seeing what it looks like from up there. It’s beautiful, the stars, everything. Amazing.” Cho had seen some things that people wouldn’t believe, she’d done some things that many people would never believe were possible but seeing Earth from the stars, it was the most incredible thing she’d ever seen. “Nothing that anyone I know can do with their magic can compare to what the people who built those spacecraft did.”
“It is a sight.” Edmund had not spent as much time off planet as Peter or Rose. Between classes and work, he'd been busier on Earth, but he'd seen the view she described before. It reminded him of setting out in the Splendour Hyaline or the Dawn Treader with the unknown ahead and home growing smaller behind. “I never get tired of discovering what new things are possible, whether by magic or engineering.”
Edmund was aware that ‘witch,’ as referring to a worker of magic, had a different connotation in other worlds than Narnia where it referred exclusively to power hungry practitioners of dark arts, so he didn't immediately shy away from the conversation. Li had been a good person and a powerful magic user, and Edmund missed her. Even Mr. Roberts had not, to Edmund's knowledge, used his magic for any more nefarious purposes than a few juvenile pranks. Edmund still didn't trust him, but it wasn't because of his magic. There might have been a slight reflexive wariness at the word, but that was old habit, and certainly not enough to keep him from forming a new acquaintance.
Cho knew that everyone interpreted the term ‘witch’ differently which was why the world of magic was kept separate from the Muggle world in her home world. Of course there were still practitioners of the Dark Arts around but they stayed hidden after the last Wizarding War. “To be quite honest, the Muggle world which is the human world, is more advanced than the wizarding world. I lived and worked in both worlds so I understand technology and things more than some. There are people though who have never used something a simple as a microwave, and at school we still wrote with quills and parchment so in many ways we were behind the times.” she laughed. “Our mail was delivered by owls which was actually pretty cool, I did miss that when I moved to the Muggle world. I still can’t see one without looking to see if it’s got a letter.”
“There's nothing wrong with quills and parchment,” said Edmund with a slightly wistful smile. He'd drafted more than a few laws on parchment, although he and his siblings had tried to keep from overreaching too far into the lives of their subjects. “We generally used other birds for messengers, but Owls were good advisors. The parliament usually had useful recommendations, although they never could understand why we didn't want to hold court business at midnight.” New York was their place now, as England had been for most of their lives, but Narnia would always be home. Duty, the injunction by Aslan to grow close to their own world, the responsibility to live as kings and queens even without crown or country, those things would inform Edmund's actions wherever he was, but it was a part, always, of his allegiance to Narnia and Narnia's king.
Perhaps he was in a more nostalgic mood than usual this New Year's Eve, with his sisters looking so very much like the gracious queens they were (for all Susan's denials) and the familiar train of suitors beginning again (a tournament really wasn't a bad idea). Peter, of course, had behaved like a king since before he ever stepped through the wardrobe, although that was not an opinion Edmund would ever express in his brother's hearing. “I do miss things like that, occasionally, in the middle of all these buildings.”