Plain, Simple Carol

[perservering]

Who: Carol Peletier & you!
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: Heron, Iskaulit
When: After the shuffle on the 20th to the arrival at the next waystation


Heron Bridge: Closed to Crewmates

[ It was a good thing that Carol had a few days to adjust between arrival and transport to her assigned ship. During that time she was able to get some information from Maggie and Carl and formulate a plan. The wisest course of action appeared to be the same thing she had done upon arrival in Alexandria: behave exactly like the timid, inconsequential housewife that she appears to be.

A plan that is seriously threatened by her position as the only security personnel on the ship. It's a fair enough assignment, she certainly has the skills necessary to defend the ship. But it is disconcerting to have her cards pulled from her vest so early.

After the initial celebration, such as it is, she reports to the bridge to take stock of the loadout. She opens the compartment and makes a show of surprise. ]

Oh my. [ She laughs awkwardly, and picks up one of the guns gingerly, as if she were afraid it might bite her. She turns to one of the other crewmates on the bridge ] I don't suppose there's a shooting range anywhere. Or maybe some kind of simulators I could train on?

Iskaulit Library: OTA

[ Reading is Carol's favorite way to pass the time. When she finds out there's a library she makes a point to visit as soon as possible. The lack of organization is frustrating. But she tries not to focus on that, and instead just let herself browse without any specific goal in mind.

It lasts about five minutes before she gets frustrated. Luckily, she's not alone. She just hopes the other person browsing won't mind an interruption. ]

Excuse me, I'm sorry to bother you but hi, I'm Carol. [ Her smile is a little simpering, as she's still doing her best to keep up the "simple housewife" act. ] I'm new here and I can't figure out how these books are organized. Do you have any tips on how to find anything?

Video: OTA

[ Carol smiles a tight-lipped smile at the camera, her eyes crinkling warmly. She's standing in the kitchen on the Heron, a variety of what passes for ingredients spread out around her. One could almost imagine her hosting some kind of low-key cooking show. ]

Hi! I'm Carol, and I'm new here. I noticed that the food leaves something to be desired, at least on my ship. So, I thought why not see what I can do to make things a little nicer. If any of the rest of you are interested in this kind of thing, or have been working on this kind of thing, I'd love to hear from you. I thought it would be nice to share tips and experiment!

Comments

[perservering]

Hello, Sorey. I'm Carol.

[ She shakes his hand and smiles, keeping her lips closed. ]

I was hoping to find some American classic literature. Mark Twain in particular. What kind of languages do they have in this library?

[monolike]

Oh man, which ones don't they have? [Sorey rounds the table and heads over to some of the shelves.] I'm not sure what American looks like...do you have an alphabet on you by any chance? I could tell you if I've seen anything in it.

[perservering]

They certainly do have a lot of choices.

[ Carol smiles a little as she looks over the collection. Although when she looks at the young man again her expression is perplexed. ]

I don't usually carry an alphabet with me, no.

[ What would that even look like? She suddenly has flashbacks to Sesame Street. ]

[monolike]

[HMMM...] It's kind of strange here- written stuff, it doesn't get translated like words do, so trying to read things can be difficult. And lots of people will be able to read the same language but then call it something else...

Anyway, let's take a look! [Sorey passes a hand over a row of books.] I can at least tell you were it's not. Mostly everything on this shelf and the next one are books from this one system. I can read those so it won't be in there. There's...hm, there's stuff from people's homes back that way, [he points,] on those three shelves in the back, but I'm not sure about the order.

[perservering]

I wonder if it has to do with the augments. They're near our ears, not our eyes.

[ It's probably a really stupid thing to say. All of this technology is completely over her head. ]

Well, I guess I should check out those three shelves back there, then. Right? See if I recognize that alphabet.

[ She wonders if writing it out would make a difference. Though it's not as if she would recognize a random alphabet written out, and be able to identify a book written in that language off the top of her head. So expecting somebody else to be able to do it seems unfair. ]

[monolike]

[Legit that sounds like an incredible theory to Sorey.]

I'll come with you! [Because now you have a barnacle for company, sorry] What does Mark Twain usually write? Romance, adventure? I know you said classic literature.

[perservering]

[ Carol still has trouble with the ol' self esteem. Especially when it comes to the question of her intelligence.

She doesn't mind the company, though. Especially if he knows how to navigate this place. ]

Adventure, mostly. And satire. Some science fiction. Sometimes all mixed together. Generally lighthearted and smart, even when he had some heavy topics in the stories.

[ Lighthearted and smart was definitely what she needed back home. Now she just needs something familiar before branching out to more complicated stories. ]

[monolike]

Ohhh, that sounds wonderful. I usually tend toward nonfiction myself, but I love adventure stories too. [He leans against a nearby bookcase, watching as she examines the bookcases.] Did you read a lot of his work back home?

[perservering]

I did, yes. Especially lately.

[ Books are getting pretty hard to come by, and harder to keep, and there aren't any new ones being made. So she keeps a few in as good condition as she can. And tries to find replacements when the copies she has are destroyed. ]

What sort of nonfiction do you like? Twain makes a lot more sense if you know what was going on in America when he was writing. Kind of the thing with satire, I guess.

[ She shakes her head. ]

I don't really recognize this writing. I don't think it's even from my planet.

[monolike]

Yeah, sometimes we get a bunch of books from other people's worlds...mostly everybody keeps their own stuff together, but sometimes things can get mixed around.

I like history and archaeology, but honestly I could read anything. But what's the name of your planet? Is it America? [Sorey knows where some planet's stuff is grouped together, after all, he might be able to find it that way.]

[perservering]

That makes sense. I guess nobody's all that familiar with the Dewey Decimal system.

[ That could be an interesting project for the next time they're in between planets. Before she gets too deep in planning, the boy asks her a question she isn't quite sure how to answer. She blinks as she thinks it through. ]

No, not exactly. The planet I'm from is called Earth, but the country is called America.

[monolike]

Oh, Earth! I've heard of Earth before. I've seen a couple of the languages from there, though I don't know American. [But he put some of the Earth stuff together, so he gestures and leads Carol over a couple shelves.]

[perservering]

It... we speak English. Or a lot of us do, anyway. It's a long story.

[ She's not really prepared to give this kid a history of humanity on planet Earth to explain why Americans generally speak English. Instead she follows him. ]

Ok, great. This is looking more like it.

[ She searches the shelves. Some of the books aren't in English, but at least they're in languages she recognizes. ]

Oh, how about that. Deerstalker.

[monolike]

Success! Is that by Mark Twain? [So that's what her language looks like. Yeah, Sorey's seen some stuff that looks like that around.]

[perservering]

No, actually. James Fenimore Cooper.

[ She flips through the book, a soft smile appearing. ]

Twain actually wrote a pretty scathing, and hilarious, critique of his work. But the story is still fun. If you can get past the weird Colonial noble savage stuff.

[monolike]

[No clue what any of that means, but Sorey is still nodding along enthusiastically because he can get behind "this author totally roasted this other author" as well as anybody else.] Were James Fenimore and Mark rivals?

[perservering]

[ She shakes her head. ]

No, Fenimore Cooper died when Twain was fifteen. He wrote it a while after that. Fenimore Cooper isn't half the writer Twain is. But like I said, still fun.

[ She looks at the shelves, the reality of what she's holding in her hand starting to sink in. ]

And not that popular. He was writing two hundred years ago. How did this end up here?

[monolike]

Things sometimes show up from our homes. It just kind of...appears here. [Sorey runs a hand over the shelf.] I've found books from my home too, which is amazing odds, right? Books that specifically mean something to one of us, spontaneously appearing.

[perservering]

I suppose that makes sense. We just showed up here, too. Why not things like books?

[ She's quiet a moment as she flips through a few more titles. She grabs Don Quixote (an English translation, thankfully) and Middlemarch. ]

So those histories you mentioned earlier. They mean something to you?

[ He's been asking all sorts of questions about Earth, but she hasn't asked him one thing about his home. It's rude of her. ]

[monolike]

[Sorey just likes to interrogate people to Learn, that's all, don't feel bad]

Oh...kind of! [Sorey sends her a sheepish look as he pulls another English-looking book from the shelf to hold out to her hopefully.] I'm really into archaeology but a lot of the history of my world's been lost to time. There are hardly any records older than a couple hundred years, but then we've got ruins that are thousands of years old... It's just kind of fun. To explore.

[perservering]

[ At first the idea that all history past those few hundred years has been lost is unfathomable to Carol. How can you just... lose history? But then she thinks about how much knowledge has already been lost back home. How much they don't know about what is happening outside of their small communities. Is that what it will be like, if the human race manages to survive in this new world? ]

I can see why history would be so interesting to you. Is there anything from your world I could read, do you think?

[monolike]

Hmm...I'm not sure! Hold on, let me- [Sorey reaches behind his cloak, flipping up the back to retrieve a book tucked into a strap in his belt. The writing system looks somewhat Latin-based, but doesn't resemble anything from Earth...and some of the script found in the book looks even stranger.] Do you recognize any of that?

[perservering]

[ Carol takes a moment to examine the book thoroughly. Not that it makes a difference. Just wanting to be able to read it won't change the fact that she's never seen this kind of writing before. And who knows what language it's in, even if she could recognize the individual letters. She shakes her head and hands it back with an apologetic smile. ]

I wish I could. Do you know if there's any audio versions? Maybe I could listen to a book on tape edition.

[monolike]

[Stares.

Stares...MORE BIGGER.]

A- a recording! An audio book! Carol, you're brilliant!

[perservering]

[ The way Sorey stares at her makes Carol worry she said something rude. Maybe books on tape killed his parents. Stranger things have happened.

Luckily, it's nothing so dire. She laughs a little. ]

I didn't invent them. It's just something we have back home.