Closed Insomnia PV Seren Yong

As Bubba listened to Seren talk about her parents he was sad, but tried not to let his face show it. He didn't want her to think he was judging her, and he really wasn't. She had no control over who her parents were or what they believed. Given her curiosity about muggle music and her lack of awareness when it came to history outside the magical world, Bubba assumed she was a pureblood. He knew not all purebloods were racist but hers certainly seemed unpleasant. "I'm sorry to hear that," he said with a sad smile, "Unfortunately we can't choose our parents, it is what it is and I'm sorry yours are like that." He wasn't really sure what else to say, "I'm lucky, my mom accidentally did a little magic in front of my father - not great for secrecy but great for me-" he said with a slight grin, "he could've run the other way, done god knows what, but he was curious. Eventually, she confessed she was a witch. He didn't care. They had many happy years together, but... it should've been more." He said sadly but didn't want to dwell so he changed the subject with a rather forced laugh, "Still, worst I can say they ever did to me was name me Bubba." He decided to move on from the bad joke with some sincerity, "Seriously, all I can really say is that when it comes to you, I'll tell you anything you'd like to know and never judge you, for your parents or anything else."

Bubba had been relieved to discover that Seren hadn't fled when he went to get more records (admittedly the cat's appearance was unplanned), but he was glad to see she was curious of the cat and seemed to want to see him. Some people either didn't like them or were allergic but she didn't seem to be one of them. He smiled and gave a chuckle when she asked for an introduction, honestly, it was the happiest and most comfortable she'd sounded since she sat down. "This is Kalle, I've only actually had him for a couple of days." He paused for a second and decided he might as well explain the name since he was absolutely certain she wouldn't know, "I named him after Kalle Rovanperä, he's a Finnish rally driver." He almost immediately realized that he would need to explain that too, "A rally is - think of a broom race, but with cars - but the cars race a stopwatch instead of each other, and instead of racing on a track they race on public roads - they're closed of course. And whoever sets the fastest time put together over all of the stages wins." He was pretty sure he'd done an adequate job of explaining. He reached across the table and set Kalle down in front of her, "I think Seren's wants to say hello, I'm sure she has some pets for you." As he said it, Kalle went and laid down on the table in front of her, rolling back and forth until he almost rolled off the table, Bubba laughed, "You goofball." After that Kalle laid relatively still, waiting for pets.

Bubba cracked a grin when it became evident he'd blown Seren's mind by telling her that humanity had sent things into space. He always enjoyed meeting someone who thirsted for knowledge the way he did and she certainly seemed to. "Ok, so, I'll try to give you the short version because there are books about this too." He paused for a moment, unsure where to begin, "So after that war I mentioned there were two countries: The United States - my country - and the Soviet Union - Russia. They were both vying for influence on the world and one of the areas they were trying to beat each other in was space." He paused again, trying to keep it as succinct and not confusing as possible."The Soviets sent a satellite - an unmanned object that orbits the Earth - named Sputnik up. Then the Americans sent one up. The Soviets put a dog in space, the Americans put a monkey in space. The Soviets sent a man into space, so did the Americans. The Soviets were beating the Americans every time, they orbited the moon first." Bubba paused, careful to try to remember the right dates. "In 1962 the American President, John F. Kennedy, said 'We choose to go to the moon in this decade, not because they are easy, but because it is hard.' And in 1969 Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon."

Interacting: @Seren Yong Mentioning: N/A

Seren gave him a small smile in return when he commented on not being able to choose one's parents. "I wish we could, but that, sadly, is not the cards life deals us. If it were, I would have much rather been my grandparents' child, on either side. It is what it is, I suppose." His discussion of his parents made her smile sadly, but also chuckle a little at a few points. "I am glad your father was accepting, and that your mom's accidentally introducing him to our world a little made it easier for you to live your life. I admit, I can't imagine what it would be like to have to hide what I am from the person I married, or my parents." His promise to her, however, had her eyes going ever so huge, and she sat up, studying him in silence for a long moment. Then, once again, she smiled brightly, with gratitude filling that smile. "That... Thank you. That is one of the nicest things anyone has ever offered me, and I will not forget it."

"Kalle... Nice to meet you, big guy. You're a handsome young man, aren't you?" She said to the cat, her eyes soft and filled with a happiness she only ever showed around animals. She listened to him explaining the name, and what a rally was, expression interested. "That honestly sounds like it would be fun. I don't... Like brooms, I'm scared of heights, sadly." She flushed again, embarrassed by her problem. Many people seemed to think she was weird for not being able to fly properly. She moved on quickly. "But a car might be something I could do! The idea of driving really fast sounds fascinating, honestly. Maybe some day I could watch such a race." She gave a soft laugh. "If we allowed flying cars, I could probably do that, too... I don't mind being inside a tall tower, but if I'm by a ledge without a window, that's another story." When Bubba set Kalle in front of her, she carefully reached over to let him sniff her fingers... And giggled at his energetic rolling. Once he had relaxed, she gave him slow, long strokes down his back, eyes once again filled with delight at the cat's friendliness and softness. "What a sweet boy... My Electra loves attention too, and is very friendly, but she did not want to come out tonight."

When he began talking about the people going to space, she got extra-intense, her expression one of pure delighted fascination. She kept petting Kalle, but her eyes were entirely focused on Bubba, wide and curious. The stories he told had her mouth wide open, and when he spoke of men walking on the moon, she gasped in pure amazement. "To think people have walked on the moon. What I would not give to be able to do that... I must imagine that the views of the stars from there must be completely mind bogglingly beautiful, and to see the moon yourself, up close and personal... I wonder if we could ever send Wix up there..."

Bubba smiled sadly at her mention of being able to choose either set of grandparents in places of her own. He wondered to himself how the respective apples could've fallen so far from the tree to make them so horrible. Most of all he just felt sorry for her, he knew from the muggle world that things like that happened but he couldn't imagine what it would be to live in a situation like that. He was very grateful to be where he came from. "I would imagine for some or even most of the half-bloods that it's one of those deals where they wait until they're married or something before they tell their muggle spouse." He frowned, mostly to himself, and continued, "I can't imagine living like that either, just the idea of living a lie, especially about who you are, I couldn't do it."

He smiled as she pet Kalle, he always thought you could judge a person pretty well based on how they treat animals, and how animals acted towards them. She had clearly passed the Kalle test, as he'd expected her to. She had been so terrified at first he didn't think lying on queue was in her repertoire. He was very excited to hear her be interested in rallying, not many people he knew even in the muggle world were interested. "It's really incredibly exciting," he said as his eyes lit up with excitement, "They do them on gravel, snow, ice, dirt, and of course regular tarmac. To see it in person is really spectacular because they're going so fast and the margin for error is so small." He pictured it in his mind, a rally car coming into view off a jump and literally flying through the air. "And the most amazing thing is they don't know what they're going until they get there. They just have notes a co-driver reads to them." There really was nothing like it, watching a car right on the edge of adhesion wind down a narrow road. "As far as I know it's the first type of racing where women started to have a lot of success. Michèle Mouton drove back in the 80s and she was really amazing." He managed to stop himself because he felt like he'd yammered on about his love rallying enough for the time being. He laughed at her comment about flying cars, "I mean rally cars kinda fly, the air they catch off some jumps is incredible. But I get what you mean."

He did relate to her fear of heights though, he didn''t have that fear himself but he had his own and it was very relatable to him. "I can understand that, I'm not afraid of heights but I do get... unsettled by the dark, I don't know if it's a fear but I just get this eerie feeling." He then paused for a long moment before quietly adding, "I am afraid of fire though..." He did not elaborate.

Not for the first time, he really appreciated the look of fascination and wonder on her face when he told her about the space race. It was so amazing to him and he grew up in a world with airplanes and satellites. He could only imagine how amazing it would be to someone who had no real knowledge of that. He too had dreamed of stepping on the moon himself one day. He wondered if you could apparate to the moon. Of course even if you could the lack of oxygen would make getting back a problem. Still, he could dream. It was, at last, his turn to ask a question, "Please forgive my ignorance, but who is Wix? And why do we want them on the moon?"

Interacting: @Seren Yong Mentioning: N/A

"I... Obviously don't really know how that works, given my own... Family background." She sighed and gave a half shrug, her eyes dropping to her lap for a moment. She hated her inexperience with the world around her, honestly. Even to a degree, even in the world of Magic, she was inexperienced and uneducated, at least when it came to the issues of interacting with people around her.

She continued to pet that adorable cat, as she listened to him talk about the Rally races. "It sounds... Fascinating. Very dangerous, given the speeds and the... Unknowns... you are speaking of, but it definitely sounds ever so exciting." She paused, though, frowning a little at his comment about women. "Why on earth is it that women did not get successes in other kinds of racing? Were they not as good, or was it that they just were not being given a proper fair chance to show off their skills?" She knew sexism existed, she knew it ALL too well. After all, her parents' reason for the way they... Viewed her... Was the fact that she was their firstborn, heir to her grandparent's estate and also NOT a boy. She might not know the term, mind, but she had a concept of discrimination against women, and she did not like that idea. "Please explain, because that bothers me..."

"And oooo... JUMPING Cars. That's so crazy and cool though!" She looked excited at the idea, honestly.

She glanced over at him as he talked about his fear of fire. The way he said it, the quietness... They all spoke to something deeper. She knew that kind of feeling from when she tried to not talk about her parents. She was silent for a moment, and then said "If you ever have trouble in potions or something, thanks to fire related issues, let me know and I will try to help?" Her tone was soft and not at all judgemental.

"Wix... Wizarding Folks. I swear I've heard people say that. Maybe I'm losing my mind, but I swear I have. Anyways... Why would we want them on the moon? Because I want ME on the moon. Can you imagine?"

Bubba was really at a loss now. He just wasn't sure how to explain to Seren what it was like for women in the muggle world. He also knew that he really had no understanding of what they went through but he would try to tell her what he knew. "So, to be clear, I only know what I've heard of I've been told, and, well I don't know that I could ever truly understand since I'm a man, but, here goes," he finished and gave a long pause before he really got into the meat of it.

"Basically, for a long, long time, women were expected to remain home and raise the children while men worked. A lot of people basically, well not basically but actually said that women belong in the kitchen. We've made some progress but there are still problems, women can work but they make less money than men. When it comes to sports..." He didn't want to explain everything but searched his mind for a good example, "So for instance in soccer - it's a muggle sport, I can tell you more about it if you like - the American men's soccer team has really never won anything, but they make ridiculously higher amounts of money than the women's team, who have won pretty much everything possible. My country has probably the best women's soccer team on the planet." He paused again, just wanting to get the topic back to what they'd been talking about to begin with, "Women in racing have been even more scarce because for one I think for a long time a lot of women didn't even drive. The other problem is you need a lot of money to make it far in racing and women don't have a lot of backers. They recently started W Series, which is all women competing but to me, that's just weird, I feel like they should fund rides for good female drivers in the male-dominated series."

He smiled very warmly at her when she didn't ask any further questions about his fear of fire. She seemed to have, if not fears, certainly a lot of anxieties and he appreciated her respecting his boundaries. He was also very appreciative of her offering him assistance in potions. "Thank you, that's very kind. I think I'm honestly decent at potions, it's more that the subject isn't all that interesting to me. But if I ever need help I'll definitely ask."

"Just because I've never heard the term wix before doesn't mean it's not a thing," he said understandably, hoping she wasn't starting to get herself flustered. "Remember, I'm new to the wizarding world, so there's definitely a lot of stuff I don't know." He thought about her wanting to go to the moon and he quite liked the idea himself, if he could figure out how to manage it. "I think that would be great but there's a lot of stuff to consider. Like the gravity up there is less than the earth, but the biggest thing is there's no atmosphere, we couldn't breathe and it'd be really cold. But hey, we're wizards! I'm sure there's a magical solution."

Interacting: @Seren Yong Mentioning: N/A

Seren could not help but to find his pause somewhat telling about what was going to come. Her expression was, for once, just stoic and accepting, her blue eyes showing nothing of her thoughts. She found herself thinking that it was good that Bubba did not pretend to truly understand, at least.

For a moment, as he went into it, she started to lean back, like she was sitting in a chair that would support her... And then hurriedly righted herself, as her hand slipped back to petting Kalle. Instead of leaning, her head slowly tipped to the side, in an almost habitual looking sort of posture. She did not speak, she did not attempt to pause the explanation to ask questions or get clarifications. She just listened, and when he finished, there was a long moment of silence, where all she did was close her eyes as she processed everything he had just told her. It was a gift of information, even if that information was not what she might have wished to hear. Nonetheless, she took it in, and then opened her eyes, her lips twisting into a somewhat dark smile. "A pity, honestly, but thank you for your honesty, and your willingness to tell me the truth, instead of putting it off or trying to suggest I get books to learn about it. I would rather know the truth sooner than later, so that I am prepared to handle it should I meet anyone with attitudes that come from growing up in..."

She paused, her expression going searching for a moment as she hunted for the words she wanted. Finally, she sighed and continued with "In old fashioned homes with extraordinarily outdated values. I am all too aware that families like that exist, after all. And as for soccer... Perhaps I shall ask you about that another day... I suspect we should probably go back to our tents at some point, after all, to avoid risk of the adults getting angry."

And also so she could get warm, it was chilly out in what she was wearing. But she also did not want to rush this discussion, as she was mostly enjoying it. "But yes... Perhaps someday I can see such races, and maybe even by then, they'll have realized that just because the drivers are women, it doesn't mean that they can't compete with men at the same level."

"Of course. Whatever is best for you, really. If you need help, do let me know." Turn about was fair play, after all, and he had been kind to her, telling her ever so much.

"I do not know. It's possible I overheard someone making a snide comment and used that as a way to mock those with more modern views." She did not mention her parents in this situation, but her eyes were a little dark for a moment, as she remembered discussions that she DID know happened were similar things occurred, and her parents mocked people who believed in a more open and accepting Wizarding world.

She listened to him talking about the Moon and what all would have to be considered for the chance to survive there. Her expression fell a little for a moment, but then she went really intense and thoughtful. "W...Well it's disappointing to find out there's no air there, and that it's cold... But Muggles could do it, without magic..." She paused, then blinked and flushed, worried she had said something rude. "Which I don't mean that badly! I just mean... Magic just makes so very many things ever so much easier, like traveling and all! Adult wizards and witches can use portkeys or apparate or..." She looked down. "I... Anyways... I wonder if we could make magic bubbles of air to bring with us, and... And maybe weights in our shoes? Or... Hmmm I don't know. But maybe... Maybe that's a project for the future..."

As Bubba listened to Seren's response to his lengthy but probably ultimately imperfect summary of gender relations in America, he fiddled with the phonograph once more. He put Blind Willie Johnson back in his sleeve and took Riding With The King out of its sleeve and put it on the record player. "Fortunately, people our age, and the generation before us as well, are a bit more progressive about it but it takes a long time for things to change." He switched topic for a moment as he set the needle, "This is more modern blues, it's what the music that Blind Willie Johnson played turned into. It's a collaboration between BB King and Eric Clapton. BB King was called the king of the blues and Eric Clapton played rock and blues, he's the only person in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three different times - two different bands and for his solo career." Bubba turned the phonograph back on and the first track would begin to play.

Bubba looked down at his watch, which was barely visible, they had been sat there for quite a while. He personally didn't think they would get in too much trouble for just sitting at the table at camp but knew that Seren was probably very nervous about it. "Yeah, you're probably right, we should think about getting back soon. Hopefully get a few good hours."

"I think you'd enjoy going to a rally, especially if you like being outdoors, they're in really beautiful locations," Bubba responded to her hope to go to a race someday. He wanted to go to Rally GB one day but it'd have to wait until he was out of Hogwarts. Still, it was one of those 'bucket list' items. "I hope women's participation turns around soon, because I've seen quite a few good female drivers, they just need the support to get further."

Bubba sat for a moment lamenting the way the world was controlled by the old at the expense of the young. They wouldn't have to deal with the mess they were behind, they would be dead and gone and he and everyone at that camp would have to deal with the consequences. "My dad always told me that the younger generation has to kick and scream to get the old generation to listen and his goal as he got older was to make sure he wasn't one of those people." He hiked his shoulders in a 'what-can-you-do?' manner. "But it seems like people like my dad are few and far between."

When Seren started to seem flustered because she might've been rude Bubba raised his hands in a hands-off manner to try and convey it was ok. "It's ok, it's ok, I'm not offended, and I know what you mean." He listened to the rest of her thoughts on going to the moon. "Magic does amazing things, no doubt. I've been blown away by the things I've seen older students and the staff do." He paused for a moment before continuing, "Muggles can do pretty amazing things too though, it's a shame we have to be separate for our own protection because I think wizards and muggles could achieve great things if they combined their strengths and set aside fear and prejudice."

Interacting: @Seren Yong Mentioning: N/A