snowblindrpg | [network] @ADMIN; Arrival [open]

[She continues in the most perfect of seriousness.]

I suppose the Americans I've met aren't that bad if one gives them the benefit of the doubt. But I wouldn't be surprised at all if they teach children some wrongheaded ideas of geography. Just like the Russians mark their borders a lot further South than they ought.

[Just trust her. She is wise.]

That's a good point.

[And he doesn't mind conceding it, even to a kid.]

Children's homework probably isn't the most reliable source of information. [Though to be fair, trusting another child's opinion on the matter probably isn't much better. Kunsel's diplomatic enough not to point that out, though.] On the other hand, there's not a lot else that's available here. Those were the first maps I'd seen since I arrived.

But anyway, you're in Alaska, whether that's part of Russia or the United States. The town we're in seems like it's been snowed in pretty well, so you probably won't be able to get back to your home soon. Did you find a backpack and coat where you woke up?

[It's so gratifying to be taken seriously, especially when she is in fact talking in wild speculation. Kesara goes with the momentum.] There ought to be maps in books, if the children are learning to draw them. Aren't there any books? Or flags? If there is a school, well, there should be a flag. It's just that Russia makes sense, and...

[She trails off, because actually Alaska would not make sense one way or another, even if it was the Russians who got her. There's the brief sound of rummaging instead.] I found a backpack - oh, it has something in - is that food? Blergh!

[To be fair, Kunsel has a slightly skewed perspective about children, and at what age a child becomes old enough to be treated seriously. He was only two or three years older than Kesara when he joined the army, after all.]

If anyone's found anything like a flag or a textbook that told us anything, they haven't shared it with the network yet. I'm at the school right now, but I haven't seen anything either. I've noticed that the buildings in this town seem to be missing a lot of the things that would normally give us information.

[And he strongly suspects that's deliberate.

At her reaction to the food, the corner of his mouth lifts, and his voice takes on a note of wry sympathy.]

Yeah, that's about how most people feel about those things. Better take them and eat them anyway, though. Food's a little hard to come by here. You can usually find more in the school and the eastern convenience store, but don't count on finding much in the houses.

They could all have decayed and wasted away. Snow is terrible for manuscript preservation. [She speaks on the subject with great authority. She'd learned such a great amount about manuscripts lately, any opportunity is a good one to show off the knowledge.] In that case you should look for inscriptions in stone or metal. Maybe in city hall?

[It's only after she has shown her expertise that it strikes her that, actually, none of this makes anything resembling sense.]

But I mean - that is what you'd do if you found just ruins. But this isn't just a site people live here. [Slowly more confusion sinks in.] Don't they? Someone must have left this food for me and the food in the other places too. And it has to have come from elsewhere because nothing would grow in this dreadful weather.

Hard to say how long this place has been abandoned, or if it's really as abandoned as we think. Still, it seems odd that we've found some books intact, or at least partially intact, but absolutely none of them contained dates, maps, or information relevant to our situation. I'm more inclined to think that someone's deliberately tried to purge that information.

Of course, some of it probably was lost to snow, and whatever it was that destroyed this place.

[So many ruined buildings, and so many more that are just rubble.]

I suppose it's possible there are greenhouses somewhere, and some kind of automated system for processing and distributing food...

[He lets skepticism lace his voice. It seems unlikely in the face of the sheer lack of resources here.]

Oh, so you did find some books! Were they in any good condition? May I see them? You need to know what to look for in such things. It's an art. And one that she is very much a beginner in, but that is no reason not to try. Sounding like an expert is the first step to everything.]

But that is, maybe someone did want to hide everything. [It's the more interesting possibility, the would-be spy in her tells to the scholar.] I've heard of a country where all books are forbidden. Because information is power, everyone knows this. If there are no people, then perhaps the Russians are afraid that we will speak to them - it must be the Russians.

Ah... sorry, but we lost the books we found. [Burned them, actually, but he's getting the impression that might upset her.] They were just fiction anyway.

[He tilts his head unseen. A campaign to ban all books...?]

The Russians don't sound like very nice people.

... that's a terrible shame. [She briefly sounds like she is about to yell at him for not keeping his books better, but she can't rightly do that to an adult, especially one who has been perfectly gentlemany to her. So she settles for sounding very disappointed.]

But no, sir, they surely aren't. The bear in the north is a shameless grubber of land and power that can never, ever be trusted to keep any promise or treaty. Although... I don't know why they should kidnap someone who isn't a Britisher or an agent of the Crown.

Yeah, it really is.

[He doesn't have to fake regret. He really does miss that romance book.]

It's possible it's not these Russians at all who are behind this. If it's someone that neither of us knows, then we can't even begin to guess what their motivations are. I think we need to try to learn who it is we're dealing with before we can figure that out.

[Kesara contemplates this for a moment. If this Mr. Kain is Russian, or a spy, or something like, then she cannot know what he knows. And it is probably best, if he is trying to distract her from the option of being captured by her enemies, that she lets him think the attempt is working.]

Perhaps it isn't. I hardly thought the Russians were capable of creating something like this, this - speech-telegraph. I don't know who could do that. It's such a very grand invention.

I don't know about the Russians, but in my world, ShinRa's the one that developed phones. Ours weren't as advanced as these tablets, though, so I doubt that it's ShinRa that's involved.

[ShinRa likes to get its fingers in a lot of pies, but this seems like a stretch, even for them.]

This Mr. Shinra must be a genius. At least as clever as Mr. Wheatstone. Is he an Englishman?

[This is, naturally, the most important question.]

If by "Englishman," you mean where he's from, then no, he's from Midgar. And actually, I was referring to the company he runs - the ShinRa Electric Power Company. It was more likely someone on his staff that invented it, not him.

I've never heard of... I'm sorry, Mr. Kain, I still don't understand this worlds lark, I think. Is Midgar some place on Mars?

[Kunsel grimaces to himself. Right. Sometimes it's easy to forget that not everyone knows everything he knows. But how to explain without sounding insane...?]

No. No, I'm pretty sure it isn't. I think.

Have you... [A thought.] Have you ever looked up at the stars and thought about the fact that each one of those stars is actually a sun? That there may be other planets around each one? I think my world is around one of those other stars. Its name is Gaia.

[Kesara takes a moment to process this, although not too long a moment. If Mars, then why not another sun? It isn't so great a leap for a flexible young mind.

Also, it is tremendously exciting.]

But that's absolutely fantastic! A whole other planet with all its countries and people and history and - you speak very good English for a foreigner from another planet, sir.

[Perhaps a niggling little doubt.]

[Kunsel blinks, nonplussed.]

English? That's not the language I'm speaking. Not unless "English" is another word for my country's language.

[He follows up with the name of the language he's speaking ~~but since it's never named in canon, just pretend there's some foreign-sounding name for the language here.~~]

[network] @ADMIN; Arrival [open]

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