Video

[hearsthesea]

Who: Shirley Fennes
Broadcast: Network; open video
Action: SS Huntress
When: Morning after the shuffle (1/03)

[There's a new face on the network! Specifically a teenage girl's, curious but not quite sure of herself.]

Can people see this?

[She pauses for a second before continuing, standing up straighter and speaking carefully.]

Um, if you can...good morning, everyone. My name is Shirley, and I suppose I'm new here.

I'm speaking to everybody now because I wanted to ask if anybody's seen a quill pen. I know I had it on me before they took me here yesterday, but it's disappeared since then. If it's not on this ship, then it should be on the big one...the HS Marsiva, I think. I'm on the SS Huntress right now, but I haven't seen it anywhere.

That quill means a lot to me, so I'd like to have it back if anyone can find it. Thank you very much, all of you.

Comments

[hearsthesea]

Not like those.

[So, Stone Age.]

I don't know how to describe the level of technology we have, but it's less than everything here. Are you familiar with all of it?

[misconceived]

Not... the way you're thinking. We kind of have more basic versions of all of this, and for stuff we don't have at all, we've definitely had stories about it. Fiction. With the augments, most of it is pretty familiar.

[hearsthesea]

That must be interesting. I don't believe we have many stories like that, but perhaps the Orerines...

[Watch out, world, Shirley's getting ideas. They're of no use while she's stuck here, but once she gets back home she's thinking this could be another direction of interest.]

[misconceived]

It's pretty popular where I'm from, but I guess it mostly started once we actually focused on improving our technology. What kind of stories do you have?

[hearsthesea]

Many of them have to do with the ocean, since it's very important to us. Like a proposal ritual that lasted a full year, or the woman who was swept halfway across the world in a storm and had to find her way home.

[Also prominent in her childhood is that tale about outside invaders and war and...oh wait. It's hard to talk deeply about the Ferines without going into ugly territory.]

[misconceived]

So... romance or adventure or stuff like that. We have stories like that, too.

[hearsthesea]

That makes sense. What are some of the ones you have?

[misconceived]

God. [ Chris laughs and shakes his head. ] That's a hard question. Pretty much anything someone's thought of and cared to put on paper, really. Huge fantasies, romance novels, historical fiction, tragedies, comedies, mythologies...

It's hard to think of just a few examples, you know?

[hearsthesea]

Not really. I didn't read that sort of thing much as a child, so the stories I remember the most are ones I learned from my sister or the elders.

[misconceived]

Right. Well... where I'm from, for school, they'd have you read a certain amount every year just to make sure you're keeping up on the culture of the whole thing. It's a lot more than just oral tradition or whatever.

[hearsthesea]

They had you do that? I didn't think you could learn culture from reading books.

[misconceived]

Oh, that's definitely part of it. You can learn a lot from reading books, no matter what genre. The author's way of telling a story could tell you a lot about them or how they see the world or think it should be or what it was like back in the time when they were alive or... a lot of things.

[ Yes, he likes to read and considers it important. He just isn't good at talking about things. Any things, really. ]

[hearsthesea]

I see.

[She's quiet for a moment, thinking about her work back home. Maybe this is another thing to look into more. But in the meantime--]

I only heard those things from the people in my village. Maybe it might have been useful to be able to read more back then.

[Or maybe not, since she can't imagine the Ferines keeping Orerines books around - but those were the old days, so she can still take note of this.]

[misconceived]

Never too late to start. There's got to be something to read around here. Even if it's all... digital or something. [ He gestures to the walls. There has to be some form of entertainment programmed into this rust bucket, right? ]

[hearsthesea]

[Shirley looks at the walls for a moment, then glances at Chris in confusion. Her eres aren't likely to work, but clearly they serve some function?]

Um...can you do something with these walls?

[misconceived]

[ Chris pauses, expression shifting as if he's about to say something really snarky before it really clicks who he's talking to. He rubs the bridge of his nose for a moment instead then shakes his head. ]

Not the walls, the computers in them. There's got to be books or something downloaded into the system.

[hearsthesea]

[Oh, how embarrassing. Shirley turns red for a moment.]

I didn't know you could do that. I really do need to learn more.

[misconceived]

[ Chris shrugs. ]

I'll show you sometime. I get the feeling we're going to have a lot of time on our hands here.

[hearsthesea]

Yeah...

[Unfortunately. She doesn't want to dwell on that right now, though.]

Do you have any recommendations for something to start with?

[misconceived]

Depends on what they even have here. We might both be starting from scratch. We'll see once we get a look at what's in the systems.

[hearsthesea]

All right. Let me try it out.

[She hurries on to find the nearest computer. Gotta learn the system, right?]

[misconceived]

[ Chris stares after her a moment before going to follow and watch. ]

How much did these things teach you about computers?

[hearsthesea]

Um...well, I think I'll be able to use one like the communicators.

[It's a start.]

[misconceived]

Okay... but computers have a bit more to them than the communicators do. [ He's about to make a comparison here, but stops. Shakes his head briefly. ] Go ahead and mess with one. Let's see what they've got on here.

[hearsthesea]

All right.

[Shirley takes her place at the first computer she finds and pauses there for a moment. First step: turning it on...successful.]