At Grimsby's invitation, Aubrey gives this new group of people a quick glance of evaluation, but then seems to come to a decision.

"I say, old chap, that's mighty decent of you, inviting a stranger to dinner," Aubrey replies, "but then, most of you appear to be strangers as well."

"The name's Aubrey St. Claire. And something other than a liquid dinner..." he holds up his glass... "would probably be better for my constitution."

"I suppose you would call me an inventor. I tried to get some of my associates interested in a potential discovery, but they refused to believe the report. And thus my preoccupation with the contents of a bottle of gin."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:52, Thu 06 July 2017.

In reply to Aubrey St. Claire (msg # 44):

Again Joseph acts the Proper Southern Gentleman,

"Joseph Rudyard Hunnisett, at your service, Sir." he says to St. Claire with a nod of his head, then gestures to the sun-browned, dark-haired young lady sitting nearby, "This is an old friend of mine; allow me to introduce to you Miss Felicity Van Horn, of the Texas Van Horns ... Felicity, this is Mister Aubrey St. Claire, Inventor."

Joseph tilts his head as he then asks, "You mention an issue with your associates, Sir. I take it, then, that you are a member of some group of Inventors, then?"

"A group of inventors?" Aubrey responds to Joseph. "Is there such a thing? Maybe across the pond, but here and in England, it's every man and woman for himself!"

"No, the gentlemen in question, and I use the term quite loosely, are scientists. The three of them have a dozen degrees among them, but, because I have none, they refuse to take me seriously!"

"Not that I didn't attend University... Cambridge, if you must know, but the halls of academia were too stifling. I waded through rote for two years before I couldn't take it any more!"

"Of course, just because I invent something doesn't mean it gets commercial or popular acceptance... or perhaps it's just ahead of its time. I still think my sliding toothed garment fastener is a very useful device. So is my variable resistance switch that limits the amount of electrical current that reaches a light bulb."

"Anyway, if you are going to the Bristol, I can show you the way. It's a fine hotel with an excellent restaurant."

In reply to Aubrey St. Claire (msg # 46):

Grimsby says, "In case you did not catch my previous introduction to the others, Mr. St. Claire, I am Grimsby H. Baskerville of Her Britannic Majesty's Colonial Service. Like you, I was at University--Oxford, Trinity College to be precise -- and I took a degree, but I must admit that I found the Crown Colony on Mars vastly more interesting than my college. All I can say for my early studies is that my 'little Latin and less Greek' was a useful preparation for mastering Pre-Seldonian Martian.
I am sorry that your inventions have not met the reception they no doubt deserved, but I shall be glad to enlist you as a guide to the Bristol, as I confess I am quite a newcomer here."
This message was last edited by the player at 01:23, Fri 07 July 2017.

Catherine curtsies. "Please to meet you, Professor Aubrey. Thank you for your kind offer."
She's a little skeptical of the usefulness of Aubrey's garment fastener. Servants never seemed to have much trouble with laces. "If I may ask, which invention is the trouble with the Professors about?" she asked curiously. No doubt it was something exciting; a airship, perhaps.
She listens with interest to her guardian talking about languages. Catherine had a gift with languages.

"Howdy," Felicity spoke around her cigarette as she landed her hat back on her head. Landing her feet on the floor again. A soft click as the metal of her boots hit the floor.

"'Fraid I'm forced to agree 'bout college boys. Ain't yet met one entirely to my own taste. Better off, all things considered. Though ain't sure what you've got against a button."

"Oh, it is not one of my inventions," Aubrey replies to Catherine.

"No, it is a telegram that one of them received. It claimed that a man was found frozen to death over in Medina, yet when the ice melted, he came back alive!"

"Preposterous, no? Unbelievable, yes? Crofton theorized that such a thing is possible, of course, but no one credits his theories."

"I ask you, however, how did this man come to be frozen in the first place? Could it have been a weather anomaly? Could it, indeed, be a hoax?"

"All I wished was to go and investigate it, but Paddington would not be swayed, and Holsten thought it was all a big joke. Dolts."

In reply to Aubrey St. Claire (msg # 50):

Grimsby responded with more interest than he had previously shown in the polite conversation, "A frozen man came back to life? Extraordinary. Certainly worth investigation. If the process could be reliably repeated, it could have all sorts of valuable applications. Do you know who the man was?  Was he a native Spaniard or a foreigner? How long had he been frozen before he had revive?"

In reply to Grimsby H. Baskerville (msg # 51):

"All valid questions, sir." Joseph nods to Grimsby, as he opens and holds the door out of the café for everyone. Joseph resigned himself to walking to the Bristol, as he didn't think the medieval streets of the Old Town, here, would accommodate a carriage large enough for this eclectic group. Luckily the weather was fine for this time of day.

Turning to Aubrey, Joseph says, "However, it occurs that the better question might be 'So what?' And I mean by that, if this event interests you, sir, why do you not just go and investigate it?"

Joseph suddenly grimaces, as the answer to his question occurs to him immediately after he has spoken it.

"Ah. Of course - the telegram was not sent to you. And the man to whom it was sent wants nothing to do with the incident, so he will not give you permission to represent him, should you go, yourself."

Brie grins at Aubrey "Well, I maybe the only none inventor as I am more of a person who gets items for people. I help people find them and worked a great deal around and I am just meeting everyone. Oh, I am Brie O'Malley, originally of Ireland.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:55, Thu 13 July 2017.

"Oh wow!" Catherine gasps. She wasn't the sort to be doubtful of dramatic claims. "How extraordinary. I quite agree that it simply must be investigated." She wasn't thinking ahead to applications like Grimsby was, but still such an astonishing event piqued her curiosity.

For a moment, after Grimsby's comments, Aubrey stares at him almost as if he'd suddenly grown a second head! And then he smiles, even laughs lightly.

"Ha-ha. Now there is a man of intellect!" he says.

"My scientific acquaintances could not see any of those things! I suppose they tolerated me because they thought that, as a fellow university man, albeit a lesser one in their eyes, I could, at least partially, understand their attempts to impress me with their own brilliance."

"Oh, I don't deny that they are learned men in their own right, but University seems to have shut down any creative spark they might once have had. I've often wondered where the imaginative wonders of modern society have come from. Take this Edison fellow. As he has been wont to say on numerous occasions, he now knows 200 ways NOT to make a light bulb!"

"Does that not sound preposterous to you? That is the rote I mentioned--trial and error. No spark of genius there! Even the very idea of the light bulb was not his. It was merely an observed accidental phenomenon that he stole and tried to make work. That he eventually succeeded is to his credit, but it does not strike me as the best way to proceed. For all he knew, there was no element that could produce significant light from passing an electric current through it!"

"And then there is his ether flyer. Stories of this invention are few and far between, no doubt to preserve its secrets as much as to preserve the mystery of Edison's genius."

"As for a claim on this event, a mere telegram does not constitute any claim whatsoever. Even if it did, he has forsworn that claim, so it is anyone's opportunity now."

"Alas, telegram's do not convey a lot of information, particularly when any kind of secrecy is wanted. Fancy codes sometimes work, but that's always dependent on the accuracy of the telegrapher."

"As for why I do not go myself, well, I have been contemplating that very thing! And although there is a serviceable road to Medina, it is still fraught with peril from bandits. Also, alas, a horse or carriage is currently beyond my means. It is why I had hoped one or more of my inventions might interest a businessman."

While it wasn't all that far to the Bristol, as it lay in the shadow of the Rock, Aubrey's running commentary made the trip pass quickly.

"Ah, here we are!" he said, as they came upon the somewhat incongruous Bristol Hotel. An odd mix of Spanish, Moorish and English architecture, it appears to have been renovated on more than one occasion. The designers, architects and builders had done a remarkable job disguising the fort that it had once been, but one could still see it if he looked closely enough.

That's a matter of opinion. Felicity walked along at an ambling pace, just barely able to keep her eyes from rolling directly onto the street. Though she wasn't quite able to keep the pained look from her face at the 'inventor's' non-stop chatter, she did at least manage not to say anything about it. Not yet, at least. Thumbs hooked into her belt, Felicity instead entertains herself with a few bird calls that quickly have them followed by a small flock of curious pigeons.

"At long last," she mumbles when Aubrey introduces the Bristol. The look of the building does little to reassure her that this is her kind of establishment.

In reply to Aubrey St. Claire (msg # 55):

Grimsby responded to Aubrey, "I cannot say who else might find this discovery worth pursuing, but I for one would be interested in looking into this matter in Medina, and while my allowance from Her Majesty's government is not extravagant, it would probably permit me to employ you as a courier or the like long enough to bring us both to Medina. But we can discuss this more over dinner."

He approached the entrance to the Bristol with his usual caution, but seeing no immediate threats, he passed inside and paused to select suitably safe seats for himself and his ward.

Brie grins as she walks with the others into Bristol. She thinks how Aubrey is so much into what he is saying, he didn't bother responding to her. She walks in and waits for the others to find seats. She looks at Felicity "So, what are you doing at the Rock?"

Catherine smiles when Aubrey compliments Grimsby. His comments on Edison are rather more shocking. “B-but Edison is a genius” she protests. “I mean, he wouldn’t have journeyed to Mars if he was afraid to innovate.”

“Where’s Medina?” she asks curiously. Surely Aubrey didn’t mean he was going all the way to Arabia.

“Oh! Will we be traveling there?” she asks Grimsby. She smiles at little at Felicity’s bird calls and the accompanying pigeons.

She follows Grimsby into the Bristol and peers around interestedly at the interior of the Bristol.

In reply to Catherine Harston (msg # 59):

Grimsby selects what he believes to be the most secure seats, and politely draws one out for Catherine; as he does so, he replies, "Edison is undoubtedly a genius, but he is notoriously hostile to innovations by rival inventors who might represent any challenge to his self-chosen role as the supreme inventor of his time. I understand from my colleagues that negotiations for the British rights to his discoveries have been very difficult, especially for the ether-flyer.
I presume that when Mr. St. Claire refers to Medina, he is thinking of the Spanish city of that name, more fully Medinia-Sidonia, best known to Britons for giving the title to the Duke of Medina-Sidonia who led the Spanish Armada. It lies in southern Spain, in Andalusia, not that far from here. A journey there would be quite feasible if we decide to undertake it.
I believe both the Spanish city and the Arabian one take their names from an Arabic word simply meaning "city," though Arabic is not one of my languages."

In reply to Brie O'Malley (msg # 58):

"Oh, just on my way through. Passing down toward the Veldt on a huntin' expedition. Hopin' maybe to round up a few bodies for a crew. Not the sorta trip one wants to go on alone. Even if I could haul a water buffalo home on my lonesome," Felicity answers, hooking her boot into a leg of a chair to tug it out for herself. While her denim jean pants and Stetson may have had some sort of place in a dark dive like the Rendezvous, surrounded by the trappings of civilization they shine like a beacon.

Brie looks at Grimsby "I speak Arabic. That was one of the reasons I was here but my employer got arrested. I am not sure they where on the up and up."

She looks at Felicity "I have to admit I have never been on a hunting trip in the wild. It sounds interesting but I am not sure what I could add, I am not much for lifting and such" she didn't look strong at all, not that she cared, she knew it wasn't her strength. So unless the American needed a translator, she wasn't sure what she could do though she didn't even know what a hunting trip involved.

In reply to Brie O'Malley (msg # 62):

Grimsby offers Brie a slight (seated) bow and says "As-salāmu ʿalaykum" --I fear that nearly exhausts my Arabic, but I am glad to know we share an interest in languages.
If Miss Van Horn is going to East Africa, I believe an Arabic translator would be of considerable use along much of the coast, and in some inland regions as well, though I fear many of the Arab speakers inland might be slave raiders. My knowledge is only second hand -- just talking with Colonial colleagues who served in Zanzibar or the like."

She smiles at Grimsby as he offers her a seat and sits down "And peace be with you. Thank you sir" she scoots up. "Yes, its my experience you have to pick a good local guide and I seem to have good luck with that. They also then know some of the local tribal languages and who it is safe to deal with."   

Cathrine sits down. She nods to her guardian's explanation of Edison. A genius, surely, but conducing oneself politely is at least as important. She looks a little embarrassed "Oh, Medina on account of the Arab historical presence in Spain. It should have occurred to me. It certainly couldn't have been the one in Arabia."

"Of course. A lady shouldn't be travelling alone" Catherine says when Felicity talks about rounding up travelling companions. "East Africa? Goodness, that can't be safe if there's slave traders and such people about."

In reply to Catherine Harston (msg # 65):

Joseph had taken a step towards Felicity with intent to seat her at table, but she sat herself, in her usual style, before he could act. With a smirk in her direction, Joseph seated himself next to her.

"Actually, Miss Felicity will need a translator who speaks Swahili, if she's headed anywhere near Deutsch-Ostafrika. Swahili is the lingua franca of most of eastern and south-central Africa, and while it does borrow a significant amount of Arabic vocabulary, it is, itself, a separate language."

Joseph grins and then adds, "Au hivyo niliambiwa na yule aliyenifundisha - or so I was told by the one who taught me."

"Well, I am sure I could help with that. I pick up languages quick and could make sure you find a good translator. she says with a smile at Joseph

She looks at Cathrine "Anyplace can be dangerous, slavers are just another danger. But if you take precautions, things are fine. I am not sure London is always safe"

In reply to Brie O'Malley (msg # 67):

"What's that you say?" Joseph asks Brie, raising a hand to his chest, an expression of obvious melodramatic shock upon his face, "London? Not safe? Why, the very idea threatens the foundation of Empire!" he guffaws.

Then sobers quite suddenly, as he notes the looks on the faces of Grimsby and Catherine.

"Ah *ahem* I, uh, I apologize. That was, perhaps, uncalled for." Joseph says, nodding towards the two Brits, "I fear, perhaps, I may have spent too much time in the Saharan wastes, this past trip, and I have forgotten how to behave in polite society. I, uh, beg your forgiveness, Sir. Miss."