Auld Lang Sine (Sinewave Londinium's Birthday Tribute)

Bisexuwhale_distress (Sinewave, Cassandra, Desiree and Fred: Time)

Cassandra La Fay, Desiree Thames and Fred belong to bisexuwhale_distress

SPECIAL BIRTHDAY RESPONSE

16 January 1897

Yes, Sinewave /was/ working on those electrification plans, even today, on her 140th birthday.  The planning was still ongoing, after all, and since she didn't have any other plans for how she was going to spend today, this was the logical way to use the time. Anyway, it wasn't as if she were the /only/ person who worked on their birthday. Many people did, whether by choice or otherwise, did they not? Besides, she'd had plenty of birthdays by now, and although she did usually at least do something for every decade, she had pointed out to all those who had brought this subject up that her /next/ decade would be her sesquicentenary, so perhaps they might hold this year's festivities in reserve for that more significant milestone? Most had rolled their eyes or shaken their heads at this; they all knew where this bit of logic was really coming from: Her Royal Efficiency /refused/ to let anything  interrupt her most important work on London's electrification-even celebrating her own birthday!

Sinewave had just sat down at her desk after fetching s fresh pot of ink, when all of a sudden, she heard a voice-no, /three/ voices-seemingly coming from midair, wishing her a happy birthday! So startled was she that she actually almost knocked over the ink, which would have been a disaster. She recognised the trio, of course: Desiree, Fred, and Cassandra (whose work this likely was). She could also imagine what they would think of the way she was spending her birthday-that is, they would not approve. She recalled Cassandra saying on the day they met that sometimes one can only be efficient if one takes a break. She figured Cassandra's thoughts would be something along the lines of "If celebrating your birthday, for the sake of those who wish to celebrate it with you if not for yourself, is not a valid excuse to take a break for this /one day of the year/, then I don't know what is." Desiree, after all the thousands and thousands of years she had spent on Earth, would probably tell her to savour these first couple of centuries before things got stale. And Fred, well, sometimes it seemed to her as though he worshiped the ground she walked on. /He/ was probably the one who had told the other two her birthday was coming up (Well, him or Harriet). But she somehow got the impression that Fred would probably want to celebrate it even if Sinewave herself wasn't actually there. But the idea of celebrating the birthday of someone he admired /with/ said someone....she recalled how happy he had looked on the day she had met him for the first time.

Well, regardless, she couldn't go and get a message to them all now even if she did have some idea how she would celebrate  it with them... Still, she found herself grateful for the gesture. Even if it had almost caused her to spill ink all over the plan, the fact was that it hadn't. No harm done. Given the way her other friends had been treating her lately...she found herself grateful for the fact that these three didn't treat her so strangely. She found that she would not mind if they showed up now. She didn't feel like seeing anyone else at present...but after this gesture, she wouldn't be able to turn them away if they did happen to show up, would she?

As she moved to put pen to paper, she suddenly heard their voices wishing her a happy birthday again, but now it came from downstairs. She /had/ got the message the first time, so why were they sending it again? Soon enough, she heard them again, coming from outside. Did they intend to lead Sinewave somewhere? She headed downstairs and opened the front door...to be greeted by them again, this time in person.

Had Cassandra put their thoughts into Sinewave's mind in order to convince her to let them in? Or had she seen the future, knowing that Sinewave would indeed open the door for them after hearing their message? Or had they just hoped that she would see them?
Well, she knew they weren't going to let her spend her birthday working...and Sinewave found that she had no objection to this. It was one day of the year, after all, and the three of them, whether her predictions of their reactions had been implanted in her mind by them or not,  had made a compelling argument.

16 January 2021
Sinewave turned as she heard Desiree wish her a happy birthday; she had been walking alongside a stretch of her river on this surprisingly warm  winter afternoon. Had the naiad sensed her presence? Either way, in spite of how unexpected it was, she was pleased to see her. "Thank you," she replied to her, "and good day. I am sorry we've not seen each other for so long; winter is always a busy time, with Christmas and New Year's light displays,  and also an increase in things breaking and needing repairs in general. But I know you do not wish to hear of all that. Come, please, join me on my walk."

They talked as they walked along the river, reminiscing about the years that they had known each other, and the people they had known along the way. Unsurprisingly, they returned to the circumstances of their meeting, and to Cassandra and Fred. Sinewave knew that she owed the three of them her life; it was thanks to them that she had recovered from the worst things that she'd been through, and that, in spite of how she'd been at that time, she could look fondly back at the time of the London electrification. It would have been a tragedy if the time in which she had done her greatest work were something she'd rather not recall. She did not fully understand exactly how they had saved her, how all of that destiny business worked, but she knew that they had, and she would be eternally grateful for it. It was thanks to them that she was here to celebrate yet another birthday at all, and though Cassandra and Fred were no longer with them, their memory would be immortalised with her.

As the goddess of the Thames and the "goddess of the grid" as some had nicknamed Sinewave (owing to the way she had dedicated herself to electrifying England's capital, and the fact that she still continued to maintain it, as well as the many, many mechanical descendants she now had as a result of it) walked down a straight section of the river, looking up and noting that the powerlines ran parallel to the river here. How symbolic. The two immortals took in their surroundings, looking at each other, being aware of and grateful for the present, while reflecting on the friends of the past who had saved Sinewave's future.

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Bisexuwhale_distress,
Where do I start? Our roleplay is absolutely incredible, your writing is amazing, your characters are great (and you're better at handling multiple characters than I am), and the amount of detail and research you put into things is astonishing! Everything about it is so impressive. We've explored so many interesting topics and I think we've both learned a lot through our roleplay. It's also great to explore aspects and implications of Sinewave's character, psychology, and bring that I haven't been able to before, or not to this extent. I hope to explore similar aspects of your characters too, and I have plenty of ideas for stuff that will happen in the roleplay, and hopefully I'll create Boysenberry the dryad soon so she can be in it. I have some interesting ideas for her so I hope she'll be a worthy addition to the cast.
I've also enjoyed the interactions we've had outside the roleplay, you seem like a really nice and interesting person!
SinewaveSanctuary.